Carnage in MotoGP FP3 at Aragon

Marc Marquez moved to the top of the timesheets during an incident-packed MotoGP FP3 at Aragon.

The session began with Valentino Rossi being flicked from his M1 when the rear tyre lost traction on his out-lap, possibly due to his foot slipping from the footpeg, with Alex Lowes suffering a faster fall moments later. The Englishman went to the medical centre to have his foot checked.

Pol Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci were then involved in a scary incident when the Tech 3 rider lost the front of his M1 on entry to Turn 2 - his riderless bike then slamming into Petrucci as he was about to rejoin the track from pit lane. Both were fortunately able to walk away.

Pol Espargaro falls - with his bike then wiping out Petrucci. Riders ok. #AragonGP #MotoGP FP3 @polespargaro @Petrux9 pic.twitter.com/tMXYKkm1GX-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) September 24, 2016

The drama continued when Nicky Hayden, Espargaro and Marquez fell at Turn 14. It appears Hayden and then Marquez fell, possibly due to oil on the track, with the Repsol Honda rider bringing down Espargaro in the process.

Carnage continues with Hayden, Espargaro and Marquez all falling on oil at Turn 14 #AragonGP #MotoGP FP3 pic.twitter.com/j0TyPOpK7F-- Crash.net MotoGP (@crash_motogp) September 24, 2016

Second fastest on Friday, Marquez had soon posted a time of 1m 47.810s to establish a sizable early advantage over Dani Pedrosa, who was yet to improve on his best lap from Friday afternoon.

By then, Rossi had already suffered his strange fall at turn nine, with Lowes tumbling at turn 16, Alvaro Bautista at turn 14 (possibly leaving the oil that caused the later falls), then the Pol Espargaro/Danilo Petrucci incident at Turn 2.

The younger Espargaro's morning then got worse. First Hayden lost the front of his Honda at turn 14. As he was retrieving his stricken RC213V, Marquez and Espargaro also fell as they braked hard when seeing yellow flags.

Thankfully Hayden was able to take avoiding action as Espargaro's second M1 sped toward him along one of Motorland Aragon's various sliproads. The fall appeared to have hurt Marquez's right shoulder, with the Spaniard applying some ice to the joint after the session.

The chaos somewhat detracted from the time sheets. Marquez's early time was enough to see him lead the session, but a late effort ensured Cal Crutchlow got within 0.196s of the fastest lap of the weekend.

Maverick Vi?ales (third) and Aleix Espargarp (fifth) completed a strong session for Suzuki, both men sandwiching Jorge Lorenzo in fourth.

There were giant strides for Scott Redding, whose late lap saw him climb to sixth. The Englishman had struggled badly with a lack of grip on Friday, but nonetheless qualified for Q2 as the top Ducati. Andrea Dovizioso was seventh.

Neither Pedrosa or Rossi improved on their Friday times, but remained inside the overall top ten to qualifying for Q2. Despite his awful morning Pol Espargaro remained tenth overall courtesy of his Friday time.

FP3:
1. Marc Marquez
2. Cal Crutchlow
3. Maverick Vi?ales
4. Jorge Lorenzo
5. Aleix Espargaro
6. Scott Redding
7. Andrea Dovizioso
8. Dani Pedrosa
9. Valentino Rossi
10. Hector Barbera
11. Yonny Hernandez
12. Michele Pirro
13. Alvaro Bautista
14. Danilo Petrucci
15. Eugene Laverty
16. Stefan Bradl
17. Tito Rabat
18. Pol Espargaro
19. Nicky Hayden
20. Loris Baz
Alex Lowes

CLICK HERE for full results.