Jack Miller moved to the head of the times in the dying stages of FP3 to secure the top spot prior to qualifying by 0.071s over Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.
The bulk of the 45-minute session was dedicated to running race simulations before the field began to wind up for the mini-time attack that would decide who would progress directly to the pole shootout and who would have to contest Q1.
Fabio Quartararo was the first to get the ball rolling with a 1:31.644s to go third fastest overall before Miller then fired in the fastest tour of the weekend so far – a 1:31.296s – to snatch away both the overall top spot as well as lead FP3, Bagnaia slotting into second just a few hundredths-of-a-second behind.
The Aussie’s effort would ultimately remain unbeaten as the chequered flag fell on the test, with the main attention on who would escape a track limit infringement on their quest to securing an automatic Q2 berth.
Behind the factory Ducati duo came Enea Bastianini in the overall order, the Gresini man holding onto third courtesy of his rapid FP2 time having failed to improve during FP3, while Quartararo was fourth ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, who utilised a tow from Bagnaia to fire himself well up the order late on.
Johann Zarco ended up sixth on the combined times for Pramac Racing ahead of Aprilia duo Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, with Franco Morbidelli finally making it into Q2 by virtue of several track limit penalties.
Both Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin looked set to reach the pole shootout having posted times easily enough to lift them into the top ten, though after the session ended these efforts were discounted for running wide – elevating Morbidelli and KTM’s Miguel Oliveira into the final two Q2 passages.
Bezzecchi therefore will have to head out in Q1 later on knowing he came to within 0.001s of breaking into the shootout directly, with Honda’s Pol Espargaro forced to settle for 12th having crashed on his final run at Turn 15 before being able to post an improvement.
Martin meanwhile fell all the way to 15th as a result of losing his lap, the Spaniard just heading Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and the sister KTM of Brad Binder in the order.
LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami also suffered a spill at Turn 3 late on and thus slipped to 20th overall just ahead of RNF Yamaha’s Andrea Dovizioso, while Suzuki stand-in rider Kazuki Watanabe continued to make improvements towards the field as he ended up 4.3 seconds down on the Miller’s benchmark.
