Rins, Pedrosa and Espargaró the fastest in FP3 at Austin

The World Motorcycle Racing Championship kicked off Saturday’s action at the Circuit of the Americas with the FP3 of the three categories, where we saw plenty of action in what is one of the last sessions before the battle for pole position.

The first riders out on track at Austin were the Moto3 riders, and this FP3 was dominated by Álex Rins, who set a lap time of 2:17.062 and comes into the battle for pole position as one of the favourites. As always, there may be surprises, but on this occasion a 42 was seen riding at a brutal pace and leaving all his rivals far behind.

We saw an FP3 of the small-bike category with a clear dominator, Rins was unbeatable and left second place almost a full second behind. That was Luis Salom, one of the big favourites, who had mechanical problems during the session. Third place went to Maverick Viñales, followed by the top 10: Vázquez 4th, Fenati 5th, Folger 6th, Kornfeil 7th, Sissis 8th, Ajo 9th and 10th I. Viñales. The remaining Spanish riders finished 19th Márquez, 23rd Guevara and 26th Carrasco. As for crashes, we had Pecco Bagnaia’s and also Álex Márquez’s, both without consequences.

The next riders out on track were the MotoGP riders, who were fighting for a direct pass to Q2 in this FP3 session at the Austin Circuit, so interest was maximal. The start of the session was a bit bumpy due to Marc Márquez’s crash in the first minutes. Luckily there were no physical consequences, but it was quite a nasty crash. While the 93 was returning to the pits, we saw Pedrosa and Lorenzo picking up pace step by step.

At the end of the session a very strong Pedrosa showed his pace and took the top spot, setting a lap time of 2:04.408. He was the only rider, along with his teammate, to dip under 2:04. Márquez was 0.387s behind, so we’re in for a very interesting fight for pole position between the Repsol menHonda, and the Yamahas will surely also put up a fight. Third place went to Lorenzo at 0.887s, with Crutchlow 4th, Bradl 5th, Dovi 6th, Rossi 7th, Bautista 8th, Hayden 9th and 10th Spies. These 10 riders go straight into the superpole battle in Q2.

Meanwhile, in Q1 we’ll see Espargaró 11th, Smith 12th, Iannone 13th, De Puniet 14th, Hernández 15th, Abraham 16th, Petrucci 17th, Barberá 18th, Corti 19th, Aoyama 20th, Edwards 21st, Laverty 22nd, Staring 23rd, Young 24th, Pesek 25th and Barnes 26th fighting it out. Two of these riders will advance to Q2 for the superpole.

The last riders out on track were the Moto2 riders, with Pol Espargaró who managed to control the third free practice session after the problems we saw him have yesterday. Good recovery, and he’s already at the top with a lap time of 2:11.575. Second place went to Redding, who took his time to show up in this FP3 but managed to ride fast, finishing just 0.083s behind, while third place went to Nakagami, 0.410s off the leader.

The rest of the top 10 was Terol 4th, Rabat 5th, Corsi 6th, West 7th, Zarco 8th, Siemon 9th and 10th Cardús. Meanwhile the rest of our riders finished Simón 11th, Torres 13th, Elías 14th, Smith 19th, Moncayo 23rd and Pons 25th. We had several crashes, among them Pons and Smith.

Now on to the QPs.

Photo | MotoGP Official website