Ducati’s Marc Marquez took control of the final practice session of the Qatar MotoGP round ahead of younger brother Alex Marquez.
Marquez has returned to the form that saw him dominate the opening two rounds of the season, with his time of 1:51.877 the fastest of the third practice of the weekend.
The first notable moment of the session came when championship leader Alex Marquez suffered his first crash of the season at Turn 15 while on his first timed lap.
Marquez’s incident came moments before older brother Marc headed to the top of the timing tower.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Ducati rider, as he had to produce a classic Marquez save at Turn 3 moments after posting his fastest lap of the session.
The final moments of the session saw a flurry of fast laps come in, with Marquez’s time of 1:51.877 proving to be the fastest of the session.
Gresini’s Marquez responded to his early crash to end practice in second place, while Fabio Quartararo set a storming lap aboard the Yamaha to go third.
Johann Zarco was fourth for LCR Honda with Pedro Acosta fifth and within half a second of Marquez’s time.
Maverick Vinales continued the strong showing from KTM in sixth, ahead of rookie Fermin Aldeguer in seventh.
Marco Bezzecchi led the Aprilias in the final practice session in eighth, with Ai Ogura just behind in ninth.
Alex Rins rounded out the top ten for Yamaha as Francesco Bagnaia only managed 11th.
Franco Morbidelli led Fabio Di Giannantonio as the VR46 pair took 12th and 13th ahead of Brad Binder in 14th.
Luca Marini was 15th for Honda as Jorge Martin ended his first Saturday practice session of the season in 16th.
Joan Mir finished practice in 17th for the factory Honda outfit, with Raul Fernandez 18th for Trackhouse.
Enea Bastianini concluded the session in 19th for Tech3 KTM ahead of Jack Miller in 20th, who was narrowly ahead of team-mate Augusto Fernandez in 21st.
Rookie Somkiat Chantra completed the standings in 22nd, 2.457s off Marquez’s best time of the session.
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