At the beginning of the session, the track slowly dried out due to the morning rain, so rain tires were preferred for almost the entire FP3.
The mixed conditions allowed some unusual names to take the lead early, with both KTM’s Kallio and Suzuki’s Joan Mir topping the timesheets for about 10 minutes each.
When the last 15 minutes began, only Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha) was on the track and the Frenchman gradually worked his way up to the top of the ranking and overtook Mir by a tenth.
But soon most of the field was back on track and Kallio was back in the lead, beating Quartararo’s time by over a second and eventually forming a KTM 1-2 with Miguel Oliveira.
Kallio was unable to hold onto first place, however, as he was demoted by Vinales before Rins – who tried slicks with Franco Morbidelli and Hafizh Syahrin – was another second faster.
Rins finished the session in the lead in 1: 55.934 minutes, with Vinales and Kallio completing the top three.
Despite leading the session, Rins still has to fight his way through Q1 as he was only 11th fastest in dry conditions on Friday.
In the end, Morbidelli jumped up to fourth on slicks, Oliveira brought a second KTM into the top five.
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 factory riders of the Italian brand Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone were two of five drivers who did without a flying lap, followed by the championship front runners Marc Marquez (Honda), Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) and Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati).
Quartararo and Mir finally completed the top 10.