MotoGP | Petrucci on top with record-breaking lap at Sepang
it was Petrucci who lead the Ducati quartet with an early morning charge before crashing at turn 5, Behind him Bagnaia, Miller and teammate Dovizioso completed the top four for Ducati.
Third and final day of testing started off with blizzard of a laps from Petrucci, Bagnaia, Miller, Dovizioso and Vinales beating previous lap record of Lorenzo, by then rider of Ducati. Petrucci clocked 1:58.239, a solid six tenths faster than last year’s Lorenzo’s lap record (1m 58.830s).
Despite crashing at turn 5 the time set by Petrucci was uncatchable even the late charge form Vinales on soft compound wasn’t enough to dispose him from top. No late end charge was seen from Petrucci as he ended the day a half hour early with 32 laps on trot and was quite happy with his long runs. According to Petrucci he could have improved his time by 3 tenths if he had gone on soft compound tires late in the day
Other to end the day with Petrucci were Bagnaia (21laps) and Miller(47laps) who at the time were P1, P2 and P3 respectively and maintained their positions afterwards with Dovizioso who finished fourth fastest with a time of 1:58.538.
Bagnaia after his end of day said: "Today I was riding more like a MotoGP rider, we need to improve our race pace a little bit, in Jerez breaking a bit difficult but it was key here that I improved and was breaking hard’’.
Vinales who was first one to break the Last years Lorenzo’s unofficial lap record finished P5 despite having a last-minute dash on softs he couldn’t improve his morning time of 1:58.644
Nothing impressive came from his partner on other Yamaha as Rossi closed the testing on P10 and sat a 1 sec behind his fast Spaniard teammate.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow whose returning from his ankle injury finished the session on P6 with a solid lap time of 1:58.780, 0.242s ahead of Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Aleix Espargaro. Both did 61 and 52 laps respectively.
After finishing Behind rookie teammate yesterday, Franco Morbidelli finished P8, and Quartararo finished 16th.
Takaaki Nakagami finished day P9 on his LCR Honda ahead of Rossi and Marquez
Reigning champion Marc Marquez, returning from shoulder surgery, who topped day one, decided to end day 3 early as well, after doing 39 laps with the best lap of 1'59.170 which was good enough for to retain his P11.
Day Three TimeSheet: 
