Yamanaka fastest ahead of qualifying at Valencia

Ryusei Yamanaka is the man to beat after Moto3™ FP3 at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana. The Japanese rider clocked a 1:38.482 in the final few minutes of the Saturday morning session at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo to claim Free Practice honours, 0.103 seconds ahead of third-placed MT Helmets - MSI teammate Diogo Moreira. Splitting them on the timesheet was Ivan Ortola (Angeluss MTA Team) at just 0.055 seconds off the pace, while fourth was Leopard Racing’s Dennis Foggia. 'The Rocket' finished ahead of Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team duo Izan Guevara in fifth and Sergio Garcia in sixth.

A slipstreaming battle for FP3 bragging rights

Leopard Racing’s Tatsuki Suzuki was quickest on Friday with a 1:39.467 and that stood as the benchmark until the new Moto3™ World Champion, Guevara, set a 1:39.318 just past the halfway point of the 40-minute FP3 outing. Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech3) then briefly took over P1 with a 1:39.136 before Guevara was back on top ahead of the final time attacks with a 1:39.037.

Ortola had already experienced an eventful morning when he pulled off in the opening minutes with an apparent technical problem, then had a loose fairing. However, he put it all behind him when he jumped into the ascendancy with a 1:38.537 while in the slipstream of Guevara. Unfortunately for him, Yamanaka was two bikes back in what was a four-bike train and immediately went faster, but no one else was going to better them and both were safely into Q2.

Lots of late drama

Foggia claimed fourth on a 1:38.627, ahead of Guevara on a 1:38.684 and Garcia on a 1:38.720. Foggia and Guevara are, of course, the two main contenders for runner-up in the World Championship, the former trailing the latter by eight points. The other rider in that fight, Ayumu Sasaki (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max), has some extra work ahead of himself this afternoon having crashed late in FP3 and been shuffled back to 16th. That left him one position ahead of Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and three ahead of Kaito Toba (CIP Green Power), who engaged in some theatrics at the side of the race track after contact at Turn 11 saw both go down, right at the end of the session. Suzuki, meanwhile, slipped down the order but was comfortably into Q2 in eighth position, and Öncü was classified 13th.

Can Yamanaka convert his practice pace into pole, and will his compatriot Sasaki escape Q1? Find out later on Saturday from 12:35 (GMT +1)!

Moto3™ Combined Top 10

1. Ryusei Yamanaka (MT Helmets - MSI) – 1:34.948
2. Ivan Ortola (Angeluss MTA Team) + 0.031
3. Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets - MSI) + 0.180
4. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) + 0.606
5. Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) + 0.623
6. Sergio Garcia (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) + 0.675
7. Xavier Artigas (CFMoto Racing PruestelGP) + 0.733
8. Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing) + 0.775
9. John McPhee (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max) + 0.776
10. David Salvador (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max) + 0.816

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