Catalan GP FP3 tests: Quartararo at the top, Honda in arrears

Fabio Quartararo poses a serious option on pole position of the 2020 Catalan GP by setting the best time in free practice 3 ahead of Maverick Viñales and Miguel Oliveira. Saturday morning, however, was more complicated for Honda-LCR, which saw its two pilots go to the mat while one of the team members was detected positive for Covid-19. Report and classification.

This third practice session was initially led by Fabio Quartararo before Pol Espargaro went on the offensive in the last ten minutes on his official KTM. Three minutes later, Viñales accelerates in 1’39.687 followed like his shadow by Rossi who climbs to 5th place. 

• GP of Catalonia:
  
• GP of Catalonia:
• MNC file :

The Spaniard – winner of the last race in Misano – repeats the following lap in 1’39.462, while Quartararo again invites himself to the party in the last moments in 1’39.5… The young Frenchman sets off again for a final launched lap and slams a clock in 1’39.418 which ensures the domination of this final session offering direct access to qualifying QP2. 

Note that this fine time in Nice is still far from the 1’38.680 achieved by Jorge Lorenzo in 2018 on the Yamaha: the windy conditions this weekend partly explain this difference in pace on the Catalan track. To see this afternoon in qualifying if the bar of 1’39 can be crossed again.

Yamaha picks up speed

Another interesting observation: the Yamaha are doing well despite the long straight line of a kilometer rather favorable to the powerful competing V4s. The explanation comes mainly from the configuration of the last corner: the curve that conditions the straight line is fast and has a lot of grip, which means that the M1s suffer less from their deficit of power and top speed.. 

Last minute mayhem as tops FP3! 

The rider denies with less than a second covering the top 20!!!   

– MotoGP (@MotoGP)

On average, the Yamaha only concede 5 km / h to the other fastest motorcycles, when they often accuse 10 km / h on other circuits with exits from hairpin bends that require strong revivals..

Maverick Viñales, Miguel Oliveira, Danilo Petrucci and Johann Zarco complete the Top 5 of these once again extremely competitive FP3s: three different manufacturers (Yamaha, KTM and Ducati) stand in less than three tenths! Valentino Rossi, eighth, is only 0.418 sec. 

Freewheel honda

However, Honda in general, and its LCR satellite team in particular, are less happy to be successful: Takaaki Nakagami made a mistake in the last five minutes without injury, before being joined in the gravel by his teammate Cal Crutchlow..

Remember that the courageous British driver suffered from a fractured ankle on Thursday and his badly treated injury to his arm… The n ° 35 suddenly went to the mat in turn 5, which has already trapped many forward drivers this weekend. end. Day to forget for the Honda-LCR team, one of the technicians dispatched by the HRC has also been detected positive for Covid-19 this morning …

Unfortunately today a member of HRC team working for LCR Honda has tested positive for Covid-19, being immediately isolated.
The three members with Category 1 contact have been isolated and tested, returning negative results.

– LCR Team (@lcr_team)

Honda for its part begins this day with the 15th place of Nakagami as the best performance: Alex Marquez is only 19th on the official bike, which should not particularly reassure the boss of LCR who will recover next year the younger brother of the reigning MotoGP champion !

MotoGP qualifying for the 2020 Catalan Grand Prix will start at 2:10 p.m. (QP1) then at 2:35 p.m. (QP2): stay tuned !

MotoGP free practice 3 results of the Catalan GP 2020

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