MOTOGP: Vinales leads Marquez and Lorenzo in FP3

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales led MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez in third practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

After Friday's rain, the session was fully dry and Vinales set the pace with Honda's Marquez and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo completing a top three covered by just 0.096 seconds.

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Vinales was the first rider to move ahead of Marquez's Friday benchmark, recording a 2m01.013s lap just before the halfway mark.

The weekend's maiden 2m00s lap was then turned by Lorenzo, a 2m00.981s, with 13 minutes remaining, and quickly eclipsed by a 2m00.584s from Marquez.

Aleix Espargaro then spent four minutes at the top of the order, before Vinales broke the 2m00s barrier with a time of 1m59.947s with four minutes to go.

Nobody could better that, and Vinales recorded a 1m59.979s after the checkered flag that would also have been good enough to lead the session.

Valentino Rossi was fourth on the other factory Yamaha, the top four split by 0.160s.

Hector Barbera followed Rossi late on his Avintia Ducati and wound up fifth, while the factory Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso in sixth and eighth were split by Suzuki's Espargaro, who did not improve after going fastest with eight minutes to go.

Tech3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro and Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10, securing the final two guaranteed places in the second phase of qualifying.

Bautista did so at the expense of Scott Redding by just 0.037s, the Pramac Ducati rider having been third fastest on Friday morning but having to settle for 11th ahead of teammate Danilo Petrucci.

He recorded a 2m01.213s lap halfway through the 45 minutes, but did not improve thereafter, crashing at Turn 7 after the chequered flag when he looked set to vault up the order.

The Briton finished 13th – 0.135s shy of Bautista – and will have to contest the first phase of qualifying.

Originally on Autosport.com