Redding leads Rossi in wet morning practice

Morning rain had abated by the time the session began, meaning rapidly tumbling times in the opening stages, with Andrea Iannone, Loris Baz and Marc Marquez among the early leaders.

Avintia Ducati man Hector Barbera became the first to breach the 1m47s barrier when he set a 1m46.851s, which was the benchmark when the rain returned around 20 minutes into the session.

But the worsening conditions didn't stop Rossi from improving his times, as he leapt up to third and then into the top spot on a 1m46.709s.

Further improvements were to come as the rain eased up again, and Rossi's time was soon beaten by Redding, who logged a 1m46.655s on his GP16 Ducati.

Redding, a podium finisher in the wet at Assen last year, soon improved to a 1m46.491s to cement his place atop the timesheets, and finally ended the session with a best of 1m46.441s.

Rossi found further time on his final lap to end up 0.231s shy of Redding.

Marquez was third on the best of the Hondas, followed by the second works Yamaha of Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco's Tech 3 Yamaha.

Barbera's earlier time proved enough for sixth, ahead of Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro, top factory Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo, Loris Baz - who crashed at Turn 3 late on the second Avintia bike - and Andrea Iannone for Suzuki.

Andrea Dovizioso ended up outside the top 10 on the second works GP17 Ducati, one spot behind first practice pacesetter Danilo Petrucci.

Cal Crutchlow was the only other rider to crash, the LCR Honda man tumbling at the Turn 8 kink late in the session and ending up 15th, 0.968s off the pace.

The second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa was slowest of all, a full 2.850s off the pace and fractionally behind Tito Rabat's Marc VDS machine.

But with no riders improving on their Friday times, Pedrosa still gets an automatic bye into Q2, while Espargaro, Lorenzo, Redding, Baz and Barbera will all have to contest Q1.