Perfect conditions for FP3 to start meant that the overall lap time was improved in the early stages of the session.
Miguel Oliveira from KTM and his teammate Brad Binder were clearly in the top 10.
Oliveira shot from 14th to fifth place in the first few moments with 1: 39.677 minutes, improved to fourth place overall and was fastest of the session with 1: 39.448 minutes, while Binder settled into fifth place.
After the first 10 minutes, Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales had also found time compared to his best time on Friday, but remained seventh.
It didn’t take another 10 minutes to make another big jump into the top 10 as Suzuki’s Joan Mir improved from 16th to sixth with a new set of medium-sized tires with a time of 1: 39.705 minutes.
Another 10 minutes later, the championship leader Quartararo equipped his factory Yamaha with fresh softs for an attack on the top of the time table.
On his first lap, Quartararo replaced Pramacs Johann Zarco with a 1: 39.168s in the combined time, before he drove the first lap under 1: 39s of the weekend with 1: 38.975s.
This seemed to keep him in the lead as the checkered flag ended the session, but former teammate Morbidelli on the two-year-old SRT M1 put Quartararo’s lap under pressure on his final lap.
Morbidelli produced a 1: 38.929s to end the morning 0.046 seconds ahead of Quartararo in order to secure the direct passage into Q2 in qualifying this afternoon.
KTM’s resurgence at the Italian GP has continued in Barcelona with Oliveira completing the top three, while Francesco Bagnaia is currently the factory team’s only Ducati rider in Q2, having finished 14th in the last minute in 1: 39.073 the fourth place was brought.
Aleix Espargaro completed the top 5 of the combined times on the Aprilia ahead of Binder, while Johann Zarco on his Pramac Ducati will move into Q2 as seventh in the combined order, although he could not improve on his Friday lap in FP3 – which gave him 15th place . the session.
The top 10 of the combined ranking completed Vinales, Mir and Valentino Rossi’s second SRT Yamaha, while Miller was denied a place in Q2 for just 0.069 seconds.
Honda’s fighting on the slippery Catalunya track lasted until Saturday, and none of its drivers got straight into Q2 from FP3.
Takaaki Nakagami was the best HRC runner on his LCR run RC213V in the combined time in 12th place ahead of works driver Pol Espargaro, while Marc Marquez was 15th and second LCR driver Alex Marquez was 18th.
Avintia rookie Enea Bastianini was unable to improve his FP2 time in 19th place in the combined time after falling early in the left turn at Turn 5.
Aprilias Lorenzo Savadori supported the field with 21 riders after crashing on the right in the closing stages of Turn 4.