MotoGP Jerez FP3: Takaaki Nakagami leads one of the closest sessions ever
Takaaki Nakagami breaks into the 1:36’s as the top 7 go within 0.100.
Takaaki Nakagami was the fastest man in the FP3 session being the only rider to make his way into the 1:36 times, the lap times tumbled down during the session as MotoGP proves how insanely competitive it is once again. The top 7 riders were covered by 0.100 which included four different manufacturers, surprisingly not including Ducati and KTM but instead Aprilia and Honda.
It was a fairly chaotic session with Marc Marquez suffering a huge crash at turn 7 and Brad Binder being bounced about like a mad man after crashing his RC16, thankfully both riders are OK but Marquez smashed into the air barrier after crashing at 120mph.
Nakagami is showing speed at the track he took his best result of P4 at last year making good process, he leads Fabio Quartararo by a mere 0.025 as the Frenchman misses out on the 1:36’s by just 0.010, Nakagami was joined by a Honda in the top 3 but not the Honda you’d expect, in third place was the HRC liveried Stefan Bradl who spent last year donning the Repsol Honda colours replacing Marc Marquez. He has done a lot of testing here this and last year and knows the circuit very well but a top 3 is a massive achievement.
In fourth place stands Joan Mir, the 2020 champion historically has struggled to put in a fast time over one lap often having to come through Q1 during qualifying, however his time today has meant he has gone straight through into Q2 with some very interesting riders including Aleix Espargaro 0.013 behind him in P5. Espargaro is benefitting from the testing data supplied by Andrea Dovizioso very recently and is showing some serious speed at Jerez, is a podium on the cards?
It was a Yamaha duo who rounded off the top 7 within 0.100 as Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli sent identical lap times of 1:37.083 only 0.098 from P1. The first two riders outside of the 0.100 bracket are Francesco Bagnaia and Johann Zarco in P8 and P9 as Alex Rins takes the 10th placed spot 0.193 from P1.
Further down Jack Miller must make his way through Q1 despite only being 0.200 off P1, he is joined by Marc Marquez, Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro in Q1.
Full results:
