MotoGP Argentina, Termas - Saturday Practice Results

* Rookie

Fastest Friday time:
Aleix Espargaro SPA Aprilia 1m 38.518s

Official Termas de Rio Hondo MotoGP records:
Best lap:
Marc Marquez SPA Honda 1m 37.683s (2014)
Fastest race lap:
Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha 1m 39.019s (2015)

Francesco Bagnaia sets the pace in a patchy Free Practice 3 for the 2023 MotoGP of Argentina.

Conditions were good enough for slicks, but rain flags were waved during the session and lap times remained several seconds off the Friday best by the Aprilia duo of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales.

Reigning champion Bagnaia and fellow VR46 Academy member Marco Bezzecchi engaged in some shadow boxing during the early stages of the session, as they filled the top two places.

Bezzecchi eventually sat Portimao winner Bagnaia up at Turn 13 - much to the amusement of their respective Ducati teams and the riders themselves when watching the replays. 

Meanwhile, the moisture hampered Fabio Quartararo's quest to extract more corner speed from his Yamaha and he finished the session in 12th.

All eyes will now be on the skies ahead of qualifying and this afternoon's Sprint race.

Q1, which includes Quartararo and Jack Miller, is up next, followed by the Q2 pole position shootout.

The 12-lap Sprint race starts at 15:00 local time.

• Argentina Moto2: Latest Results
• Argentina Moto3: Latest Results

Four riders are missing Argentina due to injuries at last weekend’s Portimao season-opener: Pol Espargaro, Enea Bastianini, Miguel Oliveira and Marc Marquez.

Bastianini, Oliveira and Marquez hope to return for round three in COTA but Espargaro’s injuries are set to see him sidelined for at least several more events. There are no replacement riders this weekend but Espargaro will be replaced by KTM test rider Jonas Folger next time out.

With Marquez missing, Alex Rins has been given one of the newer Honda chassis as used by the #93 for this weekend - but now also hopes to try one of the other versions used by Joan Mir.

Aleix Espargaro gave Aprilia its first and so far only MotoGP victory in last year’s Termas de Rio Hondo race ahead of Jorge Martin, who was also caught up in the Marquez-Oliveira clash and is riding with a broken toe this weekend.

Unlike last weekend's Portimao season-opener, which was preceded by a winter test, there has been no MotoGP action at Argentina since last year's grand prix.