Miller and Bagnaia confirmed Ducati’s dominance in the third free practice

Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, official Ducati riders, relegated the fastest rider on the first day, Enea Bastianini, to third place (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), in the third and final free practice session of the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix.

With the exception of the Italians Fabio di Giannantonio (Ducati Desmosedici GP21), Michelle Pirro (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) and the Japanese Kazuki Watanabe (Suzuki GSX RR), who did not take long to scratch a few tenths off their personal best, the rest of the drivers were very easy in the first part of the third session of free trialstries many changes without “attacking” at the best of times.

Australian Remy Gardner, on everyone’s lips for his “heartbreak” with KTM after the Austrian manufacturer’s last announcement not to continue his services in 2023, was the next to reduce his time, until the situation began to cheer the leader of the positions with the world leader, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZRM 1).

The reigning world champion made up some ground on his Ducati rivals by taking thirdbut in reality he was the first, the trigger for the beginning of the “attack” on the clock, because immediately the changes in the classification began to take place with the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) as the main reference and later have the Italians Enea “The Beast” Bastianini, the fastest yesterday, and his compatriot Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia, both on the Ducati Desmosedici paths from 2021 and 2022, respectively, although both have seen some fast lap canceled due to exceeding circuit limits.

“the devil” Quartararo jumped back onto the track to stage a second “time attack” from fourth positionthe Ducati of Miller, Bastianini and Bagnaia passed.

In this last attempt to improve the times there were also incidents, as Pol Espargaró did (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), who hit a hard “stick” at turn fifteen when he was in twelfth position and with his teammate Marc Márquez who was in the workshop following his progress with great attention.

Pol Espargaró is not the only one trying to improve Well, the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami (Honda RC 213 V) and the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16) are among those affected, although in his case, the Lusitanian is in tenth position, the last one that deserves to be in the direct classification of the second.

The Ducati trio of Miller, Bagnaia and Bastianini led the standings, with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) taking fourth place near the end. of the session, to overcome the leader of the world championship, Fabio Quartararo, was not satisfied with his performance because he could not grab another thousandth of his record, with Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR) and Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) behind them, fifth and sixthalthough the latter saw his lap canceled for achieving it when the yellow flag waved on the track, relegating him to fifteenth place and relegating Oliveira to second place.

Thus, the sixth position went to Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), ahead of Maverick Viñaleswhich also saw his best lap cancelled, ahead of his teammate Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), the Italian Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha YZR M 1) and Miguel Oliveira, behind him and within the second straight -type .

That is a goal that was not achieved by Pol Espargaró, Alex Márquez (Honda RC 213 V), Jorge Martín, Takaaki Nakagami (Honda RC 213 V) or Raúl Fernández (KTM RC 16), among the most outstanding.