Aleix Espargaro finished the final MotoGP practice session on top ahead of the all-important qualifying in Catalunya.
Espargaro, who announced his retirement on Thursday afternoon ahead of this weekend’s race, has topped two practice sessions in succession at his home race.
Closely behind the Spaniard was Francesco Bagnaia who was optimising his setup for the Sprint race, with the Pramac Ducati duo of Franco Morbidelli and Jorge Martin positioned third and fourth.
Birthday man Pedro Acosta finished as the lead KTM bike in fifth, but the factory team struggled in comparison to yesterday as Brad Binder and Jack Miller ended proceedings in 12th and 13th respectively.
Trackhouse Racing displayed competitiveness in race pace with sixth and eighth-placed finishes for Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, with Fabio Quartararo slotting himself in between the duo.
Gresini Ducati brothers Alex and Marc Marquez rounded off the top 10, with Marc notably having a strange fall at Turn 5 early on in the session where he lost the front of his GP23 late into the corner, but his bike had no further damage as he rejoined back onto the track quickly after.
Fabio Di Giannatonio finished once more ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, but VR46 were still struggling with the year-old Ducati as both finished 11th and 18th respectively.
Joan Mir extracted the most out of his factory Honda bike to finish an improved 14th, as Augusto Fernandez – who is the only KTM rider to face Q1 – finished just behind.
Factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini was unable to find the right race setup and finished a disappointing 16th, as Maverick Vinales struggled to get going and slotted himself in 17th.
Despite an automatic Q2 place, Alex Rins finished the final practice in 19th.
Once more, Honda occupied the final spots on the grid with Takaaki Nakagami ahead of LCR team-mate Johann Zarco where the latter had a late crash at Turn 5.
Luca Marini occupied 22nd ahead of test rider Stefan Bradl who returned following missing yesterday’s second practice due to illness.
