LIVE UPDATES: MotoGP Jerez - Saturday Free Practice 4
With lap times slow to begin with, Aprilia soon changed that as Argentina MotoGP winner Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales set the first 1m 37s laps of the session.
Moments later and Alex Marquez, who enjoyed a much needed return to form in Portimao, had to pull off-track due to an apparent technical issue.
In need of serious improvements following his disastrous day-one - suffered two crashes on the same lap before finishing P19 - Marc Marquez was one of the first to go faster than what he managed in FP2.
The eight-time world champion moved up to 15th, while A. Espargaro went even quicker.
The Aprilia rider remained inside the top five, however, a time of 1:37.386s was his overall best lap at that stage. Making it an Espargaro 1-2, Pol put his RC213V second - +0.244s off his older brother.
After going fastest ahead of Espargaro, Mir then slotted in between both Repsol Honda riders as he and Pol began to gap Marquez, once again showing that the latter is struggling for pace around Jerez.
While this was happening, Quartararo was in the middle of setting an outrageously quick race simulation. Mid to high 1m 37s were being set, while Jack Miller was consistently a second slower for comparison.
Continuing his impressive run of late, rookie Marco Bezzecchi once again positioned himself inside the top ten as soft tyre runs began.
Still on a race run, Quartararo looked set to challenge Mir’s top time after going fastest of anyone in the first sector, however, the lap went away from the reigning world champion who instead returned to pit lane.
Mir then went second quickest on combined times, before Francesco Bagnaia set a stunning time of 1:36.782s to go quickest overall.
After bickering on-track during FP2, Pol Espargaro once again had Marquez shadowing him as they began their time attacks.
With Marquez now in clean air but struggling, Takaaki Nakagami showed the pace of the bike as he went second. Quartararo then moved back ahead of the Japanese rider - +0.067s off Bagnaia.
Marquez then chose to abort his current run with just under ten minutes left, as he remained off the pace in 15th.
As he re-joined the action, Marquez found Miller in front as he attempted to use the Australian as a tow. And he did!
Miller went seventh, however, Marquez bettered the Ducati rider by nearly two tenths in order to go fourth.
With Marquez finally finding pace, the same couldn’t be said about Stefan Bradl and Alex Marquez as both riders crashed (turn six and 13).
P. Espargaro then joined Bradl and Marquez in crashing, also turn 13, making it three falls inside five minutes for the Japanese manufacturer.
