Nicolas Terol remains unbeaten at the French Grand Prix after going quickest again in third practice at Le Mans.
The world championship leader couldn't match his best time from yesterday afternoon but as it turned out, he didn't need to, as his time of 1:44.014 was half a second quicker than anyone else.
On Saturday morning, it was the turn of home favourite Johann Zarco to take the fight to Terol. The Avant–AirAsia–Ajo rider improved with his final lap of the session to break the Aspar Aprilia domination at the top of the timesheets.
The team had looked set for a 1-2-3 but Zarco's late flyer demoted Hector Faubel to third, with Adrian Martin producing his best result in a timed session so far this year in fourth.
Yesterday, Efren Vazquez was the man most likely to challenge the dominant Terol, but he was unable to match the leading Aprilias, ending up in fifth. His FP2 time was still good enough to put him second in the combined practice times so he can't be ruled out for a pole position challenge.
His lap at the end of FP3 pushed Jonas Folger down to sixth, with Maverick Vinales the top rookie once again in seventh. Alberto Moncayo was eighth for AndalucÃa Banca Civica, just edging out Luis Salom, while Sergio Gadea completed the top ten in the second Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing entry, again unable to match the pace of his far less experienced teammate.
Danny Webb will have been pleased to get back out on track after a disrupted second practice session yesterday. The Mahindra rider was 16th, one place ahead of fellow Briton Danny Kent.
Harry Stafford was only a tenth of a second shy of the Red Bull Ajo Aprilia in 21st, with Taylor Mackenzie finishing 25th for Phonica Racing.
The big question heading into qualifying is whether anybody can stop Nicolas Terol from taking his third pole in four races. The session will get underway at midday UK time.
