Miller fastest in FP3 as Bagnaia narrowly avoids Q1 in Valencia
Before a flying lap was even complete a red flag was brought out following a massive crash for MotoGP rookie of the year Marco Bezzecchi.
The Italian lost control of his Ducati on the approach to turn eight as his bike then caught fire.
As marshals tended to the fire, Bezzecchi slowly found his way back to his feet before returning to pit lane on the back of a scooter.
After an early tumble in FP2, Darryn Binder suffered the same fate during the early exchanges of FP3. The RNF Yamaha rider went down in sector two.
While Brad Binder led the way from Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira, more crashes were taking place as Raul Fernandez suffered a fast fall at turn ten.
Johann Zarco was next to go fastest as he narrowly got the better of Marc Marquez, who continued to look like a leading contender for victory.
Moments after Fernandez’ big off at turn ten, Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini became the next rider to lose the front-end of his machine at that corner.
A fifth crash then took place as Binder, who was still within the top five positions, also had a front-end fall at turn four.
With cooler temperatures clearly an issue, as was tyre warm-up, Takaaki Nakagami hammered home that thought as he also crashed at turn four.
As Zarco and Joan Mir separated themselves atop the timingsheets, Maverick Vinales made it a hat-trick of riders to crash at turn four.
Mir was one of the first riders to attempt a time attack run as he went 11th on combined times, however, it was Jack Miller with the pace as the Australian went fastest overall.
After being the first rider to crash in this session, Bezzecchi then suffered a second fall in sector two with just ten minutes to go.
Struggling to better his day-one time during his first time attack run, Quartararo eventually found more pace as he leaped up the order with third.
As riders outside of the top ten began to find pace, Rins and Binder combined to push Bagnaia out of the top ten.
Zarco then bettered Miller’s time at the top of the leaderboard before a response from the world championship leader saw him go sixth.
Despite late pressure from riders around him, Bagnaia remained in ninth and crucially avoided Q1 later today.
