Aleix Espargaro puts Aprilia on top as crashes dominate wild FP3 at Dutch MotoGP

Despite a late fall, Aleix Espargaro heads into qualifying at the Dutch MotoGP in fine form after getting the better of title rival Fabio Quartararo.

Prior to FP3 getting underway, Pol Espargaro decided to withdraw from the Dutch MotoGP due to pain in his ribs.

The Repsol Honda rider was expected to ride during this morning’s practice before making a decision.

On track, Maverick Vinales was the early pacesetter for Aprilia as he led from Francesco Bagnaia and team-mate Aleix Espargaro.

Eager to make up for yesterday’s penalty - Espargaro lost all of his FP2 lap times due to a technical infringement - the Aprilia rider’s pace was only being bettered by Vinales after he overhauled Bagnaia.

It was a bad start to qualifying day for Mooney VR46 as Luca Marini suffered a fast crash at turn 15 - the team’s third fall of the weekend after Marco Bezzecchi crashed twice on day-one.

Marini’s crash was quickly followed by a fall for Franco Morbidelli

who also went down in dramatic fashion at turn 15.

Fortunately, the Italian managed to walk away from the accident under his own power after being barrel-rolled through the gravel.

With a time of 1:32.911s, Vinales remained the only rider to go underneath the 1m 33s barrier until Quartararo joined him halfway through the session.

At risk in tenth position, Binder encountered front tyre issues whilst going around turn four. The KTM rider managed to avoid a crash before taking time to look at the right side of the tyre.

As race runs continued to take place, Vinales was proving to be a match for anyone as he remained quickest. Strong on day-one, Suzuki picked up where they left off as Alex Rins slotted into fourth place with 20 minutes to go.

When the focus switched from race performance to that of qualifying, Espargaro put his Aprilia top by nearly four tenths.

While the Spaniard was looking impressive, the same couldn’t be said for Enea Bastianini as the Gresini Ducati rider crashed at turn seven.

After momentarily getting the better of Espargaro, Vinales was again pushed down to second by his team-mate.

A time of 1:32.164s was set by Espargaro as Quartararo once again split the two Aprilia riders.

One of the favourites when it comes to qualifying, Bagnaia showed good pace to move into third, however, the factory Ducati rider had no answer for Espargaro’s pace.