Warmer track temperatures compared to the morning session meant lap times were almost immediately at FP1 levels, with the Yamaha trio of Vinales, Franco Morbidelli and his Petronas teammate Fabio Quartararo claiming first place.
Vinales set the early pace with a 1’50.688 before Morbidelli bested him with a 1’49.953 and Quartararo responded with a 1’49.754.
After the next salvo of laps, Morbidelli took control with a 1’49.162s before dipping into the 1’48s time for the first time 10 minutes into the session with a 1’48.992s.
Morbidelli’s lap remained unchallenged for the next eight minutes as Suzuki’s Joan Mir set an encouraging 1m48.891s.
Tire warm-up has been a problem for Suzuki this season, particularly in qualifying, but Mir’s lap and subsequent 1m48.688s was set on brand new soft rubber at the start of a stint.
With just over 10 minutes to go, Quartararo returned to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m48.406s before improving to 1m48.210s and moving almost half a second clear of the field.
As the session wound into the final five minutes, a flurry of personal bests began as the colder conditions expected for FP3 will make progress in Q2 much more difficult.
But only Vinales on the factory Yamaha threatened Quartararo, with the Spaniard demonstrating the field with a 1:47.771 – a lap some three-tenths quicker than the FP2 best time set a year ago when track temperatures were 14 degrees warmer .
Vinales made it to the checkered flag unchallenged, with Quartararo reducing his factory team-mate’s advantage to 0.249s from 1’48.020s with his latest performance.
Morbidelli completed the top 3 on the 2019 M1, with Mir taking the top Suzuki in fourth ahead of top Honda man Cal Crutchlow on the LCR RC213V.
Aleix Espargaro put his Aprilia ahead of his KTM-mounted brother Pol in sixth place, while Alex Marquez jumped late to eighth on his works Honda.
Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Alex Rins on the sister Suzuki completed the top 10, while Johann Zarco on the Avintia Ducati was 11th after a late crash at Turn 2.
He led teammate Tito Rabat, leading GP20 Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso, Pramac’s Jack Miller and Le Mans winner Danilo Petrucci while Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac) was 19th.
Brad Binder finished the field in 21st on the KTM after crashing at Turn 14 15 minutes into the session. Stefan Bradl crashed at turn 12.
Saturday’s FP3 sessions for all three classes have been postponed by half an hour to allow for safer track temperatures after this morning’s MotoGP FP1 was postponed by 35 minutes.