Vinales fastest in wet as conditions confine Rossi to Q1

Full FP3 results for the French MotoGP

Maverick Vinales has topped the wet third practice at the French MotoGP ahead of Marc Marquez and Jack Miller, as Valentino Rossi’s place in Q1 is confirmed due to the conditions.

As rain greeted the MotoGP paddock at Le Mans this morning, the session remained wet throughout which denied any outright lap time improvements compared to Friday’s practice.

Vinales, who was fastest in the dry yesterday, has also gone quickest in the wet for Monster Yamaha with a late lap of 1m 42.498s to take top spot from Marquez by almost two-tenths of a second.

Miller, who is always seen as a threat in wet conditions given his recent record, has been shuffled down to third place late after battling for the top time throughout FP3 for Pramac Ducati.

But the rain was bad news for Rossi who will need to progress through Q1 in qualifying for the second consecutive round. With the wet weather denying any improvements on the combined practice times it means the Monster Yamaha rider has been restrained to 14th place overall.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and Suzuki’s Alex Rins are two additional key riders who will head into Q1, while Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas Yamaha missed out on the top 10 and the vital Q2 spots by 0.001s to Miller on the combined times.

Rins did impress in FP3 by taking fourth place ahead of a resurgent Johann Zarco, another Q1 challenger, on the Red Bull KTM having taken pole position at this race last year on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci slotted up to sixth place late on ahead of Jorge Lorenzo on the Repsol Honda who had an encouraging session despite his concerns in the wet on the Repsol Honda.

Pol Espargaro, who has already secured an impressive Q2 spot, ended FP3 in eighth place on the Red Bull KTM as Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha’s Rossi rounded out the top 10.

MotoGP rookies Joan Mir (Suzuki), Miguel Oliveira (Tech 3 KTM) and Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) all gained useful track time in wet conditions as Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Crutchlow completed the top 15.