MotoGP Valencia FP3: Aleix Espargaro leads as entire field covered by 0.860

0.860 is today’s magic number, maybe the closest session we’ve ever seen.

Aleix Espargaro led an incredibly competitive FP3 session which has seen Enea Bastianini finish last, which on paper sounds terrible but when you realise he’s last only 0.860 seconds off it’s pretty jaw-dropping showing how obscenely competitive MotoGP is at the moment, the highest level of motorcycle racing just keeps getting better!

For Aleix Espargaro it’s a much-needed confidence booster, all weekend he’s struggled saying the Aprilia doesn’t feel ‘right’ and he is having some issues and today he’s gone out and banged in P1 on a solo lap with no help, instantly putting himself into pole position contention later on today, he led Friday’s fastest man Jack Miller by a mere 0.018 seconds with Franco Morbidelli coming home in third place.

Francesco Bagnaia has been chasing a little VR46 bonus today coming home in fourth place after helping out bossman Valentino Rossi to ensure an instant qualification for the Q2 session without the need to go via Q2 for The Doctor, Bagnaia spending his final laps giving ‘The Doctor’ a tow, heartwarming for sure. Jorge Martin finishes up in fifth place only 0.185 seconds back with Joan Mir a further 0.048 behind Martin, the gaps are absolutely minuscule!

Small gaps we say? It gets even closer! Nakagami finished 0.015 behind Mir, Johann Zarco 0.009 behind Nakagami and Fabio Quartararo 0.005 behind his countryman in ninth place, as previously mentioned Valentino Rossi made it through into Q2 as the top 10 are covered by just 0.296 seconds.

The riders who failed to make it into Q2 were Alex Rins, Brad Binder, Alex Marquez and Miguel Oliveira with Pol Espargaro also dropping down the order thanks to a huge crash.

Full results –