MotoGP Assen: Aleix Espargaro puts Aprilia on top as crashes dominate wild FP3
Prior to FP3 gett♊ing under🙈way, Pol Espargaro decided to withdraw from the Dutch MotoGP due to pain in his ribs.
The Repsol Honda rider was expected to ride during this morning’s practice befo🌟re making a decision.
On track, Maverick Vinales was the early pacesetter for Aprilia as he led from Francesco Bagnaia and team-mate Aleix♐ Espargaro.
Eager to make up for yesterday’s penalty - Espargaro lost all of his FP2 lap times due to a technical infringement - the Aprilia ride🍰r’s pace was only being bettered by Vinales after he overhauled Bagna🉐ia.
It was a bad start to q♏ualifying day for Mooney VR46 as Luca Marini suffered a fast crash✱ at turn 15 - the team’s third fall of the weekend after Marco Bezzecchi crashed twice on day-one.
Marini’s crash was quickly followed by a 💦fall for Franco Morbidelli who also went down in dramatic fashion at turn ജ15.
Fortunately, the Italian managed to walk away from♛ the accident under his own power after being barrel-rolled through th♊e gravel.
With a time of 1:32.911s, Vinales remained the only rider to go 🐎underneath the 1m 33s barrier until Quartararo joined h🧔im halfway through the session.
At risk in tenth position, Binder encountered front tyre issues whilst going around turn four. The KTM rider managed to avoid a cr꧟ash before taking time to look at the right side of the t🐭yre.
As race runs continued to take place, Vinales was proving to be a match for anyone as he remained quickest. Strong on day-one, Suzuki pickedﷺ 🅠up where they left off as Alex Rins slotted into fourth place with 20 minutes to go.
When the focus switched from🔯 race performance to that of qualifying, Espargaro put his Aprilia top by nearly four tenths.
While the Spaniard was looking impressive, the same couldn’t be said for Enea Bastianini as the Gresini Ducati rider crashed at 🔯turn seven.
Afte❀r momentarily getting the 🐠better of Espargaro, Vinales was again pushed down to second by his team-mate.
A time of 1:32.164s was set by Espargaro as Quart𒆙araro once again split the two Aprilia riders.&🔯nbsp;
One of the favourites when it comes to qualifying, Bagnaia showed good pace to move into third, however, the factory Ducati rider h🐻ad no answer for Espargaro’s pace.
Crashes dominate the final few minutes of Assen MotoGP FP3
While the top two remained unchange♏d, the final few minutes were 𝐆dominated by crashes.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was the first to go down, making it a double-crash session for Gre🧜sini Ducati, while Johann Zarco followed suit by going down at turn seven.
Looking so comfortable aboard his RS-GP, Espargaro was 😼the surprise inclusion to the crash column as he lost the front at turn three.
