Fabio Quartararo made it three from three by leading FP3 at Valencia for the 2019 MotoGP finale weekend by over two-tenths of a second.
Most of the session went by with no improvements from any of the 23 riders competing this weekend, primarily down to the low 8 degree Celsius track temperature that made it tricky to set a competitive time.
The unpredictable grip brought about by the cool track conditions caught out Aleix Espargaro early on, the Aprilia man going down at Turn 4 as the front of his RS-GP tucked as he tipped it in to the bend.
He would later crash again in a similar manner, leading to him being relegated outside of the automatic Q2 placings by the end of the session-having held eighth overall after Friday running.
Improvements began to come as the session ticked down to it’s dying moments though, Valentino Rossi shooting up from his lowly 14th position overnight to the top spot, 0.105 quicker than Quartararo’s effort.
Times then began to tumble all over the leaderboard, although when the music stopped it was again the rapid rookie that held firm at the head of the timesheets-the Petronas SRT pilot banging in a 1:30.232 on his final flyer to deny Marquez by just over two-tenths.
Jack Miller again impressed on his satellite Pramac-run Ducati GP19 with the third quickest time, just ahead of Rossi who enjoyed a much more positive start than he did yesterday with fourth overall, while Franco Morbidelli backed up his team-mate by rounding out the top five.
Maverick Vinales ultimately wasnt able to improve as much as he wanted and slipped to sixth by the end just ahead of Danilo Petrucci, who led eighth placed factory Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso home in seventh.
Joan Mir was the sole Suzuki rider to make it automatically to Q2, with LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow snatching the final ticket to the session.
Pol Espargaro just missed out in the closing seconds as he was relegated to 11th, with Alex Rins on the second Suzuki and Johann Zarco also unable to improve sufficiently to get themselves an early Q2 berth.
Francesco Bagnaia’s tough weekend reached a new bizarre level as he mysteriously crashed out when exiting the pits for his final run.
The Italian was visibly dazed as he was helped from the scene and to the medical centre for checks, ruling him out of the final few minutes and resulting in him dropping to 19th by the time of the chequered flag.
Iker Lecuona meanwhile continued to make strides forward with his RC16, posting the 21st quickest time in the session ahead of team-mate Hafizh Syahrin as well as factory KTM man Mika Kallio.
