Franco Morbidelli stunned the MotoGP field with an FP3 leading effort over four tenths clear of anyone else, while Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo will have to contest Q1.
The start of the session saw very little action as the Circuit Ricardo Tormo tarmac was initially damp, with only a few riders venturing out on wet tyres for exploratory tours.
Quartararo was the first to head out on slicks around a third of the way through the test, lowering the benchmark to a 1:32.541, though he would continue to improve slowly over the next few tours until he reached a 1:32.037 laptime.
The track surface continued to improve across the next 30 minutes until it was in sufficient condition for a late time attack in the closing stages to decide who would progress directly to the pole shootout in qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Morbidelli really came into his own on the now bone-dry circuit, firing to the top of the times with a 1:31.170 before improving upon his best Friday effort with a 1:30.751 soon afterwards.
The Petronas SRT Yamaha racer then shattered Jack Miller’s best time from FP2 by half-a-second with his last attempt, the Italian banging in a 1:30.168 that would leave him as the fastest rider to head directly to Q2, and 0.468 up on the once-again impressive Pol Espargaro.
Johann Zarco ended up third quickest in the session ahead of Maverick Vinales, while series leader Joan Mir put in a late improvement to secure himself a Q2 berth with just seconds to spare having slipped as far down the combined leader board as 13th earlier on.
Takaaki Nakagami was sixth fastest for LCR Honda ahead of Tech 3’s sole representative Miguel Oliveira-following team-mate Iker lecuona testing positive for Covid-19 ahead of FP3- while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro was eighth.
Quartararo ultimately slipped to ninth overall by the end just ahead of factory Ducati racer Danilo Petrucci, though both will have to contest Q1 after their respective laps failed to breach the combined top ten times.
Andrea Dovizioso fell to 13th in the combined standings having entered the session a solid sixth, while Alex Rins will also have to fight for a place in Q2 after ending FP3 only 15th in the combined times.
Miller and Pramac team-mate Francesco Bagnaia both failed to improve on their times from Friday, though both their efforts were enough to keep them in the pole shootout in second and eighth in the combined efforts respectively.
Also missing out are the other three Honda pilots, Cal Crutchlow managing the best of the three in 14th ahead of factory Honda men Stefan Bradl and Alex Marquez, who ended up 17th and 19th respectively.
Valentino Rossi struggled to get up to speed after missing most of the European GP weekend, the seven-time premier class champion only 18th overall heading into qualifying.
