The Turkish rider tops the times heading into qualifying ahead of Champion Acosta and Kelso in Valencia
The returning Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech3) has claimed the final Moto3™ Free Practice honours of the season after setting the quickest time of the weekend at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana in FP3. The Turkish rider’s 1:39.256 saw him beat second place Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) by 0.099s, with stand-in rider and 2022 rookie Joel Kelso (CIP Green Power) picking up a terrific P3 despite a late crash at Turn 2.
Plenty of improvements in FP3
It was a dry but chilly start to the morning at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and it wasn’t until there was just four minutes to go before we saw a change at the top. Guevera had improved his time slightly to stretch his advantage, but Carlos Tatay (Avintia Esponsorama Moto3) then set a 1:39.440 to land a new benchmark time. Öncü and Kelso then beat Tatay’s time, with Acosta and Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team) joining the Turk and Australian in doing so too.
The Q2 qualifiers
At the chequered flag, Öncü picked up P1 from Acosta and Kelso, with Migno heading Tatay in the top five. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) was able to grab P6 in FP3 to sit ahead of Friday pacesetter Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team), with Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride), Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) and Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) completing the last Free Practice top 10 of the year.
Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), Filip Salač (CarXpert PrüstelGP), John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing) and Jeremy Alcoba (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3) are the final four riders automatically into Q2.
Tune into Moto3™ qualifying at 12:35 local time (GMT+1) to see if World Champion Acosta can get his first pole position of the season, an accolade he desperately wants.
Top 10 combined:
1. Deniz Oncu (Red Bull KTM Tech3) – 1:39256
2. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.099
3. Joel Kelso (CIP Green Power) + 0.147
4. Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team) + 0.168
5. Carlos Tatay (Avinita Esponsorama Moto3) + 0.184
6. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) + 0.205
7. Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar team)
8. Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride) + 0.279
9. Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) + 0.353
10. Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) + 0.362
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here