Marc Marquez fastest in damp Mandalika FP3, but Q1 appearance confirmed

With several big names hoping to improve their lap times during the third ever MotoGP practice at Mandalika, a damp 2.6 mile circuit had other ideas. 

Quickest in FP1, Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez were all in desperate need of a dry track, however, conditions failed to improve enough resulting in all four riders having to settle for Q1 late today. 

After his impressive performance on day-one, Miguel Oliveira was the early pacesetter before M. Marquez overhauled the KTM man with a time of 1:42.319s. 

A clear favourite if conditions remain this way for Sunday’s race, Marquez will need to qualify well, something that’s been a slight weakness since his return from injury. 

Lap times continued to improve as Oliveira regained top spot. However, the threat for P1 then came from Marc’s brother Alex Marquez who went second. 

That was before Jack Miller, who was one of the last riders to head out, went 1.7 seconds quicker than Oliveira’s time on what was just his third lap. 

Arguably the best MotoGP rider when it comes to tricky conditions, Miller continued to destroy his own time as he then went three seconds clear of fellow Ducati rider Joahnn Zarco. 

A key factor to the substantial difference in pace was Miller being out on slick tyres as opposed to most of the field who had wets fitted to their machines. 

Marco Bezzecchi was next to elect for dry tyres as he went second fastest - 1.3 seconds down on Miller. 

A brief change at the front then followed as Zarco went two tenths faster than Miller, however, the Australian bounced straight back with a time of 1:37.481s.

As lap times got closer and closer to that of Quartararo’s best FP2 effort, it was Marquez and Miller doing battle for top spot with a quarter of FP3 remaining. 

The two riders exchanged top spot on several occasions with Marquez getting down to a 1:36.601s. 

After a disastrous day-one which saw him finish last, Luca Marini finally showed himself towards the front as he went third quickest aboard his 2022 Mooney VR46 Ducati. 

While Marquez continued his stunning pace out front - was the first rider to set a sub 1m 35s lap - Alex Rins ran out of fuel aboard his GSX-RR Suzuki. The Spaniard did manage to find his way back to pit lane though. 

With three minutes to go Bagnaia joined Marquez as the only riders into the 1m 34s barrier, while Andrea Dovizioso put his RNF Yamaha into P3. 

Late improvements saw Bezzecchi and Marini finish third and fourth, while Bagnaia got close to Marquez on his final lap around. 

But the Repsol Honda man wasn’t to be denied as he topped his first session of the weekend, still the eight-time world champion will need to either top Q1 or finish second if he wants to give himself any chance of victory tomorrow. 

Rounding out the top five was Rins, while P. Espargaro, Miller,  Oliveria, Mir and Dovizioso made up the top ten.