Franco Morbidelli heads into Moto2 qualifying for the Valencia Grand Prix as the man to beat after topping a tight final practice session ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliveira.
Dominique Aegerter and Tom Luthi’s stand-in Riccard Cardus traded top spot in the early stages of final practice, with the former getting the upper hand just under 10 minutes in with a 1m35.893s.
Friday pacesetter Oliveira – who spent the session trying an aerodynamic fairing similar to that used on KTM’s MotoGP bike – took over from Aegerter shortly afterwards with a 1m35.811s, before world champion Morbidelli upped his pace.
The Italian edged ahead of Oliveira with a 1m35.722s, and improved to a 1m35.600s while Marc VDS team-mate Alex Marquez slotted into second.
Morbidelli‘s benchmark stood for the remainder of the session, though Oliveira did put it under considerable pressure with a 1m35.637s. Marquez completed the top three.
Oliveira‘s team-mate Brad Binder slotted into fourth spot ahead of Aegerter, while Mattia Pasini rounded out the top six from Cardus. Marcel Schrotter, Francesco Bagnaia and Hafizh Syahrin completed the top 10.
Sandro Cortese suffered a crash at Turn 8 10 minutes into the session, but was able to rejoin and took the chequered flag in 11th ahead of Tech3’s Xavi Vierge. Tetsuta Nagashima, Agusto Fernandez and Axel Pons, who also crash during third practice.
Takaaki Nakagami has had a quiet weekend so far in Spain, and was one of only a few riders not to improve on their Friday best down in 16th. British wildcard Jake Dixon (33rd) suffered his second fall of the weekend at the end of the session, and had to be helped off circuit by the marshals.
