Quartararo tops FP3 as Ducati, Crutchlow struggle

San Marino MotoGP, Misano - FP3 Results

Yamaha continued its dominance of the San Marino MotoGP weekend as Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales firmly established themselves as favourite for pole position at Misano.

With the flat, flowing venue evidently suiting the M1 in testing two weeks ago, both the factory and satellite Petronas SRT team have dominated the timesheets since with Quartararo and Vinales going head-to-head again in the Q2-deciding FP3 session.

Quartararo came out on top to put him in a good position for a fourth pole position of the year, three tenths clear of Vinales, who in turn put two tenths between himself and surprise third place man Pol Espargaro, who used the tow from Quartararo to haul his KTM into third.

Marc Marquez was fourth best, ahead of Franco Morbidelli, who made it three Yamahas inside the top five, while Takaaki Nakagami caused an upset by getting into sixth place, unlike LCR Honda team-mate Cal Crutchlow down in 13th.

Rossi eases into Q2 as Ducati scrapes in

Valentino Rossi made it comfortably through to Q2 on home soil, ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, while Ducati got two bikes into Q2 but only just with their test rider Michele PIrro in ninth and Marquez’s closest – albeit distant – title rival Andrea Dovizioso squeezing by less than a tenth.

By contrast, it was a disastrous session for Ducati’s two other GP19 riders with Jack Miller – who has struggled all weekend – in 16th and Danilo Petrucci well down the order on home soil in 17th.

They’ll head for Q1 looking to save face for the manufacturer, but face competition from KTM who had Johann Zarco and Miguel Oliveira up in 11th and 12th.

Elsewhere, Aleix Espargaro’s weekend took a slide as he suffered a fall, the Aprilia man forced to rely on his FP1 time which left him 18th, just behind Jorge Lorenzo, who suffered technical issues to add to his ongoing troubles at Repsol Honda.