Aleix Espargaro led his second straight session at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya by topping FP3 to lead the automatic pole shootout contestants.
Having led the way overnight, the Aprilia man was never headed in the combined times throughout the test as his rivals lapped around two-tenths-of-a-second adrift in the early goings.
He then laid down a commanding gauntlet as he posted a pair of faster tours, his second effort of 1:38.771s – a new two-wheeled lap record for the current circuit configuration – leaving him well clear of team-mate Maverick Vinales at the head of the field.
Espargaro would ultimately remain firmly fixed to the top of the tree as the session ticked down, Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco reducing the lead margin down to 0.131s in the end as he took second overall ahead of team-mate Jorge Martin.
A late improvement saw Francesco Bagnaia bag fourth ahead of the sister factory Ducati of Jack Miller, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo rounding off the top six.
Luca Marini starred once again as he ended up seventh for VR46 ahead of Honda’s Pol Espargaro despite the latter suffering an awkward crash at Turn 5 mid-way through.
Alex Rins managed to secure a guaranteed-Q2 passage in ninth, while Mugello pole-man Fabio Di Gianantonio got the better of multiple race-winning team-mate Enea Bastianini to complete the top ten.
The latter could only muster up 12th in the end – meaning he will have to battle for one of the last two pole shootout berths in Q1 – behind Vinales, who found himself unable to improve sufficiently to hang on within the top ten despite having ended Friday second overall.
Joan Mir also has work to do after managing 13th ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli, while Brad Binder was the fastest KTM in 16th.
Takaaki Nakagami ended up a lowly 17th having looked strong in the early goings just ahead of the sister official KTM and defending Barcelona race victor of Miguel Oliveira.
Michele Pirro won the battle of the testers in 21st on his Ducati, with Honda man and Marc Marquez replacement Stefan Bradl completing the 25-man line-up just over 1.6 seconds adrift of Espargaro’s benchmark.
