With cooler conditions greeting the riders for the start of Saturday’s action, lap time improvements on the combined order pivotal to deciding who goes straight into the pole shootout in qualifying later were few and far between.
After 15 minutes of the 45-minute session, only three riders had gone quicker than their Friday bests – though LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and KTM’s Miguel Oliveira stayed 17th, 19th and last respectively.
It would take until 25 minutes in before a significant improvement on the combined order was made, with Nakagami jumping up to 10th with a 2m03.286s. This was still around seven tenths off the best pace set by Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco on Friday.
Argentina race winner Aleix Espargaro was the next big mover, with the Aprilia rider improving to seventh having previously sat 11th. His Honda-mounted brother Pol Espargaro was shortly follow him into the top in ninth, while Suzuki’s Joan Mir leaped up to fourth with a 2m02.874s to close to within 0.332s of Zarco’s best.
Zarco’s 2m02.542s finally came under some pressure with just over 12 minutes to go, as Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini fired in a 2m02.741s to go top in FP3 and moved up to second on the combined order 0.199s adrift.
On his following tour, Bastianini toppled Zarco’s lap with a 2m02.420s to take over top spot on the combined standings.
With five minutes to go, the rest of the field wound up for the final salvo of time attack laps to make their bids for a direct place in Q2.
Just prior to this, Suzuki’s Mir crashed at Turn 13 having just set the fastest first sector of the session and left himself vulnerable to being knocked into Q1. Pramac’s Jorge Martin also took a tumble at Turn 16 a few moments before and would be left stranded in 15th.
Mir would be spared demotion, but his Suzuki team-mate Alex Rins was not so fortunate – the Spaniard one of six riders not to better their Friday times in FP3.
Already safely through to Q2, Yamaha’s Quartararo cemented his place with a final effort of 2m02.361s to lead Bastianini at the end of FP3 by 0.059s.
Ducati’s Jack Miller completed the top three, while the returning Marc Marquez was fourth despite a moment late on through Turn 18 that almost resulted in Bastianini running into him.
Zarco crashed late on at Turn 2 but held onto fifth on the combined order to make it into Q2, while Francesco Bagnaia on the factory team Ducati lifted himself out of the elimination zone to sixth.
Pol Espargaro ensured both factory Hondas will appear in Q2 in seventh, with Mir eighth in the end despite his crash.
The final direct Q2 spots went to Nakagami and VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini, and the expense of Argentina winner Aleix Espargaro – who missed out by 0.076s in 11th.
Rins split the two Aprilias, with Maverick Vinales 13th having failed to improve on his Friday best.
Morbidelli could do no better than 14th on his Yamaha, as once again only Quartararo could get the M1 into Q2 as RNF Racing counterparts Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder – who crashed late – struggled to 16th and 21st.
KTM’s difficult Austin weekend continued, with Brad Binder another rider crashing in FP3 – the South African left in 17th after his last-minute tumble, with team-mate and Indonesia race winner Miguel Oliveira 19th having struggled with vibration issues on the front end on Friday.
Qualifying for the 2022 MotoGP Americas Grand Prix gets underway at 2:10pm local time.
| Cla | Rider | Bike | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 17 | 2'02.361 | 162.198 | ||
| 2 |  Enea Bastianini | Ducati | 14 | 2'02.420 | 0.059 | 0.059 | 162.120 |
| 3 |  Jack Miller | Ducati | 17 | 2'02.447 | 0.086 | 0.027 | 162.084 |
| 4 |  Marc Marquez | Honda | 17 | 2'02.490 | 0.129 | 0.043 | 162.027 |
| 5 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 19 | 2'02.621 | 0.260 | 0.131 | 161.854 |
| 6 | Pol Espargaro | Honda | 14 | 2'02.798 | 0.437 | 0.177 | 161.621 |
| 7 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | 15 | 2'02.874 | 0.513 | 0.076 | 161.521 |
| 8 |  Takaaki Nakagami | Honda | 16 | 2'02.908 | 0.547 | 0.034 | 161.476 |
| 9 | Luca Marini | Ducati | 16 | 2'02.921 | 0.560 | 0.013 | 161.459 |
| 10 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 17 | 2'02.997 | 0.636 | 0.076 | 161.360 |
| 11 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 17 | 2'03.072 | 0.711 | 0.075 | 161.261 |
| 12 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha | 15 | 2'03.086 | 0.725 | 0.014 | 161.243 |
| 13 | Maverick Viñales | Aprilia | 14 | 2'03.354 | 0.993 | 0.268 | 160.893 |
| 14 | Andrea Dovizioso | Yamaha | 16 | 2'03.370 | 1.009 | 0.016 | 160.872 |
| 15 | Johann Zarco | Ducati | 15 | 2'03.513 | 1.152 | 0.143 | 160.685 |
| 16 |  Brad Binder | KTM | 16 | 2'03.622 | 1.261 | 0.109 | 160.544 |
| 17 | Jorge Martin | Ducati | 14 | 2'03.637 | 1.276 | 0.015 | 160.524 |
| 18 | Alex Marquez | Honda | 15 | 2'03.833 | 1.472 | 0.196 | 160.270 |
| 19 |  Miguel Oliveira | KTM | 15 | 2'03.949 | 1.588 | 0.116 | 160.120 |
| 20 | Remy Gardner | KTM | 16 | 2'04.099 | 1.738 | 0.150 | 159.927 |
| 21 | Darryn Binder | Yamaha | 14 | 2'04.296 | 1.935 | 0.197 | 159.673 |
| 22 | Marco Bezzecchi | Ducati | 15 | 2'04.349 | 1.988 | 0.053 | 159.605 |
| 23 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Ducati | 12 | 2'04.506 | 2.145 | 0.157 | 159.404 |
| 24 | Raúl Fernández | KTM | 15 | 2'04.542 | 2.181 | 0.036 | 159.358 |
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