Rins leads Vinales, Kallio in the wet FP3

The track was slowly drying out from the morning rain at the start of practice, so wet tires were the preference for almost all of RP3.

The mixed conditions allowed some unusual names to run early, with both KTM’s Kallio and Suzuki’s Joan Mir heading the timesheets for about 10 minutes each.

At the start of the last 15 minutes, only Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) was out on the track, and the Frenchman gradually made his way to the top of the rankings, surpassing Mir by a tenth.

But soon most of the field was back on track and Kallio was back in front, beating Quartararo’s time by more than a second and forming a KTM 1-2 with Miguel Oliveira at one point.

However, Kallio was unable to hold onto first place as he was downgraded by Vinales before Rins – who tried slicks along with Franco Morbidelli and Hafizh Syahrin – got another second faster.

Rins finished the session in the lead with a time of 1: 55.934 minutes, with Vinales and Kallio taking the top three places.

Despite leading the session, Rins still has to fight his way through the first quarter as he was only 11th fastest on Friday in dry conditions.

In the end, Morbidelli jumped to fourth place with slicks, with Oliveira bringing a second KTM into the top 5.

Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) and Yamaha’s Rossi finished sixth and seventh respectively ahead of wildcard Bradley Smith, the only Aprilia to set a lap time in the session.

The Italian brand’s factory riders, Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone, were two of five drivers who decided to forego a flying lap. There were also championship leader Marc Marquez (Honda), Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati).

Quartararo and Mir completed the top 10.

Session results: