The afternoon practice kicked off with sunny weather. This session is special, as the top 10 riders have earned direct entry into Q2.

The times started in a time range of 1:42 to 1:40. After the first measured lap, the lead was taken by Pedro Acosta. The top 5 looked as follows: Acosta, Marini, Bastianini, Espargaro and Alex Marquez. The times got much faster already in the second measured lap attempt, with riders dipping into 1:39 and Marc Marquez taking the lead. So with 8 minutes in, Acosta was in the lead again, with Marini and Alex Marquez behind him. But for a change, Francesco Bagnaia, who was not having good morning practice, was now in 12th place.

Marc Marquez started a flying attempt, but after having the fastest 1st sector, something happened and he slowed down, unable to improve for now. After the 10 minutes, the top 10 looked as following: Alex, Acosta, Marini, Zarco, Bastianini, Marc, Miller, Di Giannantonio, Aldeguer, Morbidelli. The riders returned to pits, to talk with their mechanics.

With 37 minutes left, the riders started to return on track. Most of the riders chose both medium tyres at the back and front. While some riders chose medium front and soft rear. Brad Binder managed to improve to 3rd place, behind his teammate Acosta. Meanwhile Bagnaia fell in the standings further back, while both Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin struggled so far to improve to top 15.

Some riders started good laps, but when they finished they weren’t able to improve. Quartararo had a good lap, but he wasn’t that fast in sector 3, which cost him a possible improvement into top 10, so he ended at 13th place so far. But who surprised was Ai Ogura who was at 10th place. And with the session being in the halfway point, the top 10 looked like this: Alex, Acosta, Binder, Marini, Zarco, Bastianini, Marc, Miller, Bezzecchi, Ogura. Otherwise, there weren’t any changes happening. And with 20 minutes left, the majority of the riders were in the pits.

With 15 minutes left, the riders were back on the track, and Enea Bastianini took the lead, with a time 1:38.972, being also the first rider to dip into a time range of 1:38s. However, Bastianini wasn’t in the lead for long, as Marc Marquez took the lead, with Zarco behind him in second place. Espargaro managed to improve to jump to 9th place, while Miller improved to 4th. Pedro Acosta improved his time to 3rd place for now. But he didn’t stay there for long, as Alex Marquez improved to 3rd, pushing him down. Who also got into top 10 was Jorge Martin, who improved to 9th place for now. Espargaro again improved and got into 8th place.

With 10 minutes left, Alex Marquez took the lead of the session. The top 10 looked like this: Alex, Marc, Zarco, Acosta, Binder, Bezzecchi, Mir, Oliveira, Marini and Morbidelli. But the positions had changed soon, with Quartararo in 9th, while Bagnaia was in 20th place. And Quartararo managed to jump, with fastest 2nd sector, he jumped to 4th place. So with 7 minutes left, most of the riders returned to pits.

And with 5 minutes left, the riders were back for the final attempts. Alex was in the lead, with his brother behind him, Bezzecchi jumped to 3rd place with Zarco behind him. Meanwhile Bastianini and Acosta started flying laps, attacking the lead. Bastianini managed to get to 4th while Acosta took for a brief moment pole, before Binder took it from him. However, it is worth mentioning that Morbidelli improved to 7th place. And with barely 2 minutes left, there was first yellow flag caused by Johann Zarco who had crashed. And shortly after the first yellow flag went out, another one was brought up, this time caused by Enea Bastianini who had crashed at Turn 2.

With the chequered flag out, the positions didn’t change due to the yellow flag. So the top 10 riders who are going to Q2 were: Binder, Acosta, Alex, Marc, Bezzecchi, Bastianini, Morbidelli, Zarco, Marini, Ogura.