Valentino Rossi beats Lorenzo to top FP3

The session was interrupted after around 12 minutes by light drizzle but conditions improved enough for riders to return to the track just over 10 minutes later.

Improvements by others in a frantic end to the session meant Lorenzo was pushed down to the bottom of the top 10 on combined times and in danger of not making Q2.

However, a late effort in the final minute sent the Spaniard to first place.

Rossi - who has a one-point advantage over Lorenzo at the top of the standings - was able to better that moments later to top the session by 0.108 seconds.

Ducati duo Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso claimed third and fourth respectively with their late efforts, beating the time of Bradley Smith that briefly put Tech 3 Yamaha rider top just seconds before the factory aces took over.

Marc Marquez was sixth ahead of his Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, whose FP3 time was half a tenth slower than his benchmark from Thursday.

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales was knocked out of a Q2 place in the early stages by Smith but he recovered to set a time good enough for third with six minutes remaining and remained sufficient for eighth place at the flag.

Pol Espargaro joined team-mate Smith in making Q2 in ninth ahead of LCR Honda man Cal Crutchlow.

Crutchlow fell one hundredth of a second short of his best time from Thursday but just held onto the final place in the top 10 ahead of Danilo Petrucci and Catalunya pole-sitter Aleix Espargaro.