Fifteen riders were covered by a second with the biggest improvement by far coming from Marquez’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard was 21st at close of play on Friday but managed to secure a Q2 spot by jumping up to ninth place in the final minutes of the session.

Second quickest was Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller, closely followed by LCR Honda Castrol’s Cal Crutchlow. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Viñales also moved straight into Q2 after ending the session fourth.

Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci made the jump from outside the top ten ahead of FP3 to go fifth quickest, whilst Franco Morbidelli held on to a top ten spot, eventually finishing sixth, to move directly into Q2.

Valentino Rossi made it two Yamaha MotoGP machines in Q2 by sitting seventh on the timesheets. Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso  just about held on to a Q2 spot despite crashing out, unhurt, at Turn 1 with five minutes remaining. The Qatar GP winner didn’t improve on the lap that saw him top yesterday’s FP2 session, seeing him drop to eighth overall.

Lorenzo made it two Honda Team riders in Q2 after he also improved by a full second from yesterday to go straight into Q2 for the first time this season. Taking the final Q2 spot right at the death was  Yamaha SRT’s Fabio Quartararo, after the Frenchman knocked out LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami with the chequered flag out.

Both Team Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir will have to through Q1 later after Rins failed to improve on yesterday’s FP2 laptime. The pair ended 15th and 17th respectively.