PETRONAS Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli bounced back from a difficult Friday to finish on top of the pile in the third free practice session of the weekend.

The half Italian, half Brazilian MotoGP race-winner leapt from his 15th place he found himself in overnight to claim top spot over Friday pacesetter Takaaki Nakagami and team-mate Fabio Quartararo.

The session was tight, with the whole field covered by just 1.1s, however, in typical MotoGP 2020 fashion, upsets were made in the final 45 minute session.

The third and final free practice was a fast one, with all 21 riders setting their fastest laps of the weekend. Morbidelli’s quickest time of a 1:47.333 was just +0.059s quicker than LCR Honda Idemitsu’s Takaaki Nakagami, who in turn was just +0.009s quicker than Quartararo.

Maverick Viñales’ best effort was good enough for Q2, putting the sole Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider in fourth ahead of podium finisher Alex Marquez.

Red Bull KTM Tech 3 rider Iker Lecuona picked up where he left off from free practice two after putting in a radical set up change to his RC16. The Spaniard leapt up to sixth just +0.215s off Morbidelli’s session topping time.

Alex Rins remained inside the top ten, finishing seventh ahead of the second Red Bull KTM Tech 3 rider Miguel Oliveira, Cal Crutchlow and championship leader Joan Mir.

After the frustration of Friday, Jack Miller launched himself to 11th, missing out on a Q2 position by just +0.024s. The Australian will join his fellow Ducati’s in Q1, a session that the 25-year-old has found himself in for the fourth time in five races as the Ducati struggle goes on.

Andrea Dovizioso improved by 1.3s compared to Friday, but still found himself out of the top ten in 14th, just ahead of rumoured World Superbike bound Tito Rabat.

Danilo Petrucci, Francesco Bagnaia, Stefan Bradl, Bradley Smith and Johann Zarco are all among the ten riders to go through the first 15-minute qualifying session which kicks off at 14:50 local time.

Featured image: MotoGP.com