One of the most exciting sessions of the weekend proved to be very difficult due to very hot temperatures. The air temperature when pitlane opened was 37°C with a track temperature reaching highs of 49°C at some points of the circuit.

Reigning World Champion Joan Mir will have to go through Q1 later today because he failed to improve his time from yesterday’s FP2. He tried his very best with 7 minutes to go, stringing a few laps together but failed to go faster than 10th place man, Repsol Honda rider, Pol Espargaro.

Fastest man on combined times Jack Miller crashed for the second time this weekend early on in the session at Turn 15. He slid down the road after applying the power at the apex and unloading the front tyre. He ended up sliding down the road with the bike in the gravel.

His teammate Francesco Bagnaia stays 2nd on the timesheets. He had a slight problem with his practice start, when he couldn’t engage his front-end squatting device. Hopefully Ducati can get that sorted for tomorrow’s race.
Monster Energy Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo had a few runs out on track and looked to be getting along with his new bike and remains 3rd, and his teammate, Maverick Vinales is 6th.

The Petronas SRT riders both remain in the Top 10 with Valentino Rossi having a very steady session, not particularly going above 11th, while Franky Morbidelli was comfortably going about his business, and remains in 7th.
Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco also had a quiet one, but remains in 4th. Jorge Martin showed promise, topping the session very early on and remaining in the Top 10 throughout, but again, he failed to improve on yesterday’s time, and so will head to Q1.

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini‘s frontman Aleix Espargaro remains in Q2 after setting his time yesterday. He returned to pitlane mid-way through the session, making complaints that it was too hot and dangerous to be riding in the heat. Right at the end of the session, he had a spill into Turn 6. He looked a little off line and had a gentle fall on to the scorching Losail tarmac.

All 4 KTM’s are also going through Q1. Miguel Oliveira showed a little bit more promise in the very hot session, getting as high as 6th place; Brad Binder looked purposeful on board his Factory KTM, but again struggled to tear up the timesheets.

Rookies Luca Marini and Enea Bastianini had better sessions, although the #23 did end the session watching from the side-lines due to a problem ending in his bike beingpushed across the gravel.

MotoGP’s Q1 is set to start at 20:00 Local Time (GMT +3). Let’s see if the World Champion can get out of Q1, into Q2, and up the grid for tomorrow’s race.