Rookie Izan Guevara (Santander Consumer GASGAS Aspar) came out on top of an entertaining FP3 session on Saturday morning, with his 1:35.838 seeing him top the session and the timesheets at Bitci Motorrad Grand Prix of Austria. The Spaniard had 0.066s to spare over Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) in second with teammate Sergio Garcia (Santander Consumer GASGAS Aspar) in third.
How FP3 played out
Coming towards the latter end of the session, a whole host of riders had improved their times in the cool conditons, but it was last week’s poleman Öncü who sat pretty at the top of the timesheets ahead of Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) and Garcia. As a cluster of riders took to the track, Guevara was able to navigate his way through the traffic to post the quickest time of the weekend, and finish Moto3™ Free Practice as the fastest rider.
The rookies continue to shine in FP3! ✨@IzanGuevara28 fastest on Saturday morning! ????#Moto3 | #AustrianGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/AZS73u8LdB
— MotoGP™???? (@MotoGP) August 14, 2021
As Guevara went quickest, Öncü dropped to second while Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) momentarily moved into the top three, only for Garcia to immediately respond and move back into the top three.
The rest of the top 10
The top three remained untroubled by the rest of the field as Gabriel Rodrigo recovered from a collision with Ryusei Yamanaka (Car Xpert Pruestel GP) at Turn 3 to make the top six along with teammate Jeremy Alcoba. They sit either side of John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) in P5. Italian Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) leads compatriot Fenati while Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) dusted himself down from a big crash to take P9.
Not the kind of incident you expect on the first timed laps! ????@gabrirodrigo2 and @yamanaka_ryusei make contact! ????#Moto3 | #AustrianGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/mq6jGNDpO5
— MotoGP™???? (@MotoGP) August 14, 2021
Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) rounds out the top ten places with little to nothing between the other Q2 qualifiers. Filip Salac (Car Xpert Pruestel GP), Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse), Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team) all squeeze themselves into the coveted top 14 spots, while Darryn Binder misses out and will go down the dreaded Q1 route.
The lightweight class will be back on track at 12.35 (CET) for Q1.
Top 10:
1. Izan Guevara (Santander Consumer GASGAS) – 1:35.838
2. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech3) + 0.066
3. Sergio Garcia (Santander Consumer GASGAS) + 0.069
4. Gabriel Rodrigo (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3) + 0.119
5. John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) + 0.208
6. Jeremy Alcoba (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3) + 0.214
7. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) + 0.237
8. Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) + 0.263
9. Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech3) + 0.297
10. Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.333