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Maverick Viñales avoided the surrounding drama to retain first place in the third and final free practice for MotoGP Aragon, but his efforts were overshadowed by a major accident involving title rival Fabio Quartararo.
The Frenchman, still third-fastest on the timesheets, suffered a heavy braking at the tricky Turn 14, the scene of an accident for him yesterday as well, with the Petronas SRT Yamaha beginning to buckle under him before biting into him and hit it another direction.
Throwing him into the air, though not before a nasty blow from the Yamaha, Quartararo fell heavily onto his left side, prompting him to grab his shoulder initially. Needing help to get up, Quartararo finally took the available stretcher before being transferred to the medical center.
The incident could be a serious blow to Quartararo, who leads Joan Mir by 10 points in the standings, in his title aspirations, even if he gets back on track today and is compromised by his condition.
Indeed, the crash, one of the few to occur on the downhill race to Turn 14 when braking, will illuminate the cool conditions, and the organizers have tried to circumnavigate this by starting the FP3 session an hour later.
The delay meant that most of the drivers were able to go faster than FP2, although the leading drivers remained relatively similar.
Although more than a second slower than his best record on Friday, Viñales was the fastest overall, leading a 1-2-3 Yamaha still with Franco Morbidelli second and Quartararo retaining third.
In a strong session for Honda, Cal Crutchlow, who nearly fouled at Turn 14, moved up LCR Honda to fourth place, one of three RC213Vs to go straight to Q2, including Takaaki Nakagami in eighth and for the first time this year, Alex. Marquez in seventh.
Pol Espargaró flew the KTM flag in an encouraging fifth best, while Suzuki has his two riders in Q2 with Mir, who will keep an eye out for updates from Quartararo, sixth and Alex Rins in ninth. Aleix Espargaró got the tenth and last position in Q2 for Aprilia.
However, an advantage for Quartararo will be the fact that Ducati continues to fight in conditions where none of its six bikes make it to Q2.
Andrea Dovizioso suffered his own crash at Turn 6, but was able to get back into the pit lane, although even then he couldn’t do better than 13th. In fact, Ducati took six of the last nine places on the timesheets, while KTM took over the other three.
