The paddock stayed put at Jerez for a day of testing, although Yamaha’s Quartararo elected against running due to the arm-pump issue which cost him victory in the race and dropped him to an eventual 13th.
The French rider has returned home for medical consultation to determine the best course of action for his arm ahead of his home round at Le Mans in two weeks’ time.
Six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez was also feeling the effects of his heavy FP3 crash on Saturday. The Spaniard, who said after finishing ninth in only his second race back from injury that he felt “destroyed”, rode just seven laps on Monday before calling it a day due to pain in his neck.
Aleix Espargaro’s running was also limited to 12 laps following the Aprilia rider’s early crash at Turn 6, while HRC test rider Stefan Bradl – who made a wildcard appearance in the Spanish GP – was not involved on Monday.
Around the same time Espargaro crashed, Vinales had also stopped on track due to a loss of oil – having just gone top with a 1m37.717s – which caused the session to be briefly halted by a red flag.
Vinales’ running wasn’t compromised much by his earlier issue however, the Qatar GP winner improving to a 1m37.135s to end the second hour top.
Alex Rins would take over from him to end hour three fastest with a 1m36.913s, as the Suzuki rider – along with team-mate Joan Mir – once again tested a 2022 prototype engine, while both Rins and Mir worked on set-up ideas for Le Mans.
Alex Rins, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
It wasn’t until just under two hours of the session remained before Rins’ time was toppled, Vinales returning to top spot with a 1m36.879s as he worked towards a massive total of 101 laps.
Vinales’ time wouldn’t be bettered as most ended their days early, with Rins remaining his nearest challenger 0.034 seconds adrift while Mir completed the top three.
Takaaki Nakagami was top Honda rider on his LCR machine, having tested various new parts – including a new Yamaha-style aerodynamic fairing.
Johann Zarco was fifth on the Pramac Ducati ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro, who crashed twice on Monday.
The top 10 was completed by KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, Avintia rookie Luca Marini, Spanish GP podium finisher Franco Morbidelli (Petronas SRT) and championship leader Francesco Bagnaia.
The Ducati rider’s race-winning team-mate Jack Miller was 18th behind Tech3’s Iker Lecuona, Marc and Alex Marquez (LCR) and Aleix Espargaro.
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