Submitted by Zara Daniela on
In addition to cold wind giving viewers motion sickness from watching unsteady cameras, the intermediate class had the added complication of dark clouds gathering above them throughout the session. That only served to rush riders along in pursuit of a Q2 worthy time and early signs were more encouraging than for Moto3, Jorge Navarro’s early benchmark only three tenths of a second off Friday’s top time. However, further progress was halted for the middle part of the session, when riders retreated to pitlane as the wind picked up and a very light drops grazed visors.
Things hotted up again (only somewhat literally) for the final 15 minutes, when Fabio Di Giannantonio proved that Q2 was within reach and promptly joined the top ten overall. The Italian’s feat proved hard to replicate for his rivals and Di Giannantonio finished the final practice session on top, nearly three tenths ahead of an almost as impressive Marco Bezzecchi. Remy Gardner improved late on to climb to third but a late tangle with Xavi Vierge stopped any further improvements and left the local favourite outside of Q2, much like Sam Lowes in fourth.
Brad Binder in fifth was half a second off the leader, with Navarro dropping to sixth narrowly ahead of Iker Lecuona and Jesko Raffin. Rookie Jorge Martin was only ninth in FP3 but remained the fastest rider of the weekend overall. Lorenzo Baldassarri might have joined the top ten in the final practice session ahead of Tom Luthi and Alex Marquez, but unlike the two title hopefuls, the Italian got pushed out of Q2 by Di Giannantonio’s impressive display.
Despite writing no headlines in FP3, the likes of Tetsuta Nagashima, Nicolo Bulega, Stefano Manzi, Enea Bastianini and Augusto Fernandez also secured direct Q2 positions, leaving the likes of Baldassarri and Gardner to battle it off against Lowes, Luca Marini or Marcel Schrotter in Q1.
Results:
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap 1st | Prev. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Speed Up | 1'33.555 | ||
| 2 | 72 | Marco BEZZECCHI | KTM | 1'33.821 | 0.266 | 0.266 |
| 3 | 87 | Remy GARDNER | Kalex | 1'33.928 | 0.373 | 0.107 |
| 4 | 22 | Sam LOWES | Kalex | 1'34.033 | 0.478 | 0.105 |
| 5 | 41 | Brad BINDER | KTM | 1'34.066 | 0.511 | 0.033 |
| 6 | 9 | Jorge NAVARRO | Speed Up | 1'34.163 | 0.608 | 0.097 |
| 7 | 27 | Iker LECUONA | KTM | 1'34.261 | 0.706 | 0.098 |
| 8 | 2 | Jesko RAFFIN | NTS | 1'34.262 | 0.707 | 0.001 |
| 9 | 88 | Jorge MARTIN | KTM | 1'34.281 | 0.726 | 0.019 |
| 10 | 7 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Kalex | 1'34.330 | 0.775 | 0.049 |
| 11 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Kalex | 1'34.369 | 0.814 | 0.039 |
| 12 | 73 | Alex MARQUEZ | Kalex | 1'34.379 | 0.824 | 0.010 |
| 13 | 62 | Stefano MANZI | MV Agusta | 1'34.447 | 0.892 | 0.068 |
| 14 | 97 | Xavi VIERGE | Kalex | 1'34.468 | 0.913 | 0.021 |
| 15 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | NTS | 1'34.608 | 1.053 | 0.140 |
| 16 | 23 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Kalex | 1'34.669 | 1.114 | 0.061 |
| 17 | 45 | Tetsuta NAGASHIMA | Kalex | 1'34.686 | 1.131 | 0.017 |
| 18 | 33 | Enea BASTIANINI | Kalex | 1'34.808 | 1.253 | 0.122 |
| 19 | 11 | Nicolo BULEGA | Kalex | 1'34.848 | 1.293 | 0.040 |
| 20 | 16 | Joe ROBERTS | KTM | 1'34.967 | 1.412 | 0.119 |
| 21 | 10 | Luca MARINI | Kalex | 1'35.104 | 1.549 | 0.137 |
| 22 | 5 | Andrea LOCATELLI | Kalex | 1'35.367 | 1.812 | 0.263 |
| 23 | 35 | Somkiat CHANTRA | Kalex | 1'35.491 | 1.936 | 0.124 |
| 24 | 40 | Augusto FERNANDEZ | Kalex | 1'35.856 | 2.301 | 0.365 |
| 25 | 96 | Jake DIXON | KTM | 1'35.884 | 2.329 | 0.028 |
| 26 | 65 | Philipp OETTL | KTM | 1'36.136 | 2.581 | 0.252 |
| 27 | 18 | Xavi CARDELUS | KTM | 1'36.238 | 2.683 | 0.102 |
| 28 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | Kalex | 1'36.360 | 2.805 | 0.122 |
| 29 | 77 | Dominique AEGERTER | MV Agusta | 1'36.419 | 2.864 | 0.059 |
| 30 | 3 | Lukas TULOVIC | KTM | 1'36.924 | 3.369 | 0.505 |
| 31 | 20 | Dimas EKKY PRATAMA | Kalex | 1'38.270 | 4.715 | 1.346 |
| 32 | 47 | Adam NORRODIN | Kalex | 1'39.871 | 6.316 | 1.601 |
