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The Ducatis struggled in low grip and windy conditions on Friday and did not run on soft rubber in FP2, which meant Danilo Petrucci came out into the complex at the beginning of FP3 and set the starting pace with a 1m40.783s. .
This was quickly beaten by Petronas’s Quartararo with a 1m40.476s, which improved to 1m40.359s moments later.
Franco Morbidelli’s 1m39.789 in FP2 still remained the fastest lap in combined times during the first half of the third session, although his teammate Quartararo began to put this in jeopardy with 15 minutes to go.
A brake problem for Quartararo at the end of FP2 prevented him from making a time attack, but he made up for it with a 1m39.786s to go faster overall.
Others joined Quartararo to switch to soft rubber when they made their bids for an automatic spot in Q2, with KTM’s Pol Espargaró ahead of the Petronas rider with 1m39.756s.
Emilia Romagna’s race winner Viñales was the next rider to start lighting up the timing screens, the Spaniard guiding his working Yamaha to 1m39.687s with just over seven minutes to go.
Viñales found more time on his next road trip to improve to 1m39.462s to go within two tenths of the field.
When the checkered flag came out, Viñales seemed keen to stay in first place, but Quartararo had other ideas, finding some time in his final effort to produce a 1m39.418s to head into qualifying this afternoon as the pilot a shake.
Tech 3 KTM’s Miguel Oliveira jumped to third place ahead of Petrucci, whose final lap of 1m39.702s ensured that he would be the only Ducati rider riding a GP20 in the top 10.
He crawled ahead of Avintia’s Johann Zarco on the one-year Ducati, with Pol Espargaró leading Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi on the Yamahas.
Brad Binder clinched a direct spot in Q2 with his KTM at the end of ninth place, with Suzuki’s Joan Mir securing last place in tenth at the expense of Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia pairing, Jack Miller and the factory Ducati from Dovizioso.
Alex Rins was also unable to make the Q2 cut at 14th in his Suzuki, and the LCR pairing of Takaaki Nakagami and Cal Crutchlow also lost after their last crashes.
Conditions also affected Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró in 17th place and Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona in 21st, who posted his third crash of the weekend.
Such are the good margins in MotoGP in 2020, the top 20 from Quartararo to Avintia’s Tito Rabat were covered by just 0.923s.
