MotoGP Styria FP3: Francesco Bagnaia puts Ducati back on top

Ducati are back in P1 at the Red Bull ring curtsey of Francesco Bagnaia.

FP3 is the highlight of the weekend for many, a shootout of the best riders in the world putting their everything into one lap to ensure they get the chance to do it again later today in the Q2 session, with 10 Q2 spots and 23 riders gunning for a spot you can imagine it is exciting to watch! Of the field, it was Francesco Bagnaia who led the way by a tiny 0.028 seconds to put Ducati back on top in Styria where they belong after it was Honda who were the fastest yesterday.

For Yamaha it was a close one with Fabio Quartararo’s lap cancellations nearly forcing him to go via the Q1 session this afternoon, ending his 100% 2021 Q2 streak. Thankfully Fabio was able to do what he does best and bang in a lap time worthy of P2 ahead of his teammate Maverick Vinales with the duo trading some paint and words on track with Vinales trying to get a tow and Fabio not having any of it, doing everything he can to shake off his teammate.

MotoGP’s rookie superstar Jorge Martin takes home P4 and a Q2 spot smashing in a time only 0.180 seconds from his fellow Ducati teammate before crashing at the end as he wasn’t tall enough to get his feet on the floor of the tall Ducati, a funny story to tell the grandkids that’s for sure. In P5 was Joan Mir who spent the session trying out the new ride height adjusting device down the straights, it’s rumoured to save 0.400 a lap, it will be interesting to see how this develops for Suzuki.

Johann Zarco led Marc Marquez in P6 and P7 as Aleix Espargaro once again puts the Aprilia into the Q2 session finishing in P8 only 0.480 seconds from leader Bagnaia.

Rounding off the top 10 and the final Q2 riders are Jack Miller and Takaaki Nakagami with many riders including Pol Espargaro, Dani Pedrosa who remains as the fastest KTM, Alex Rins, both Factory KTM riders and Alex Marquez all being forced to come via Q1.

Full results –