KTM's Pedro Acosta set the fastest time in Friday's practice for the Catalan Grand Prix, the sixth of 22 rounds in the MotoGP world championship.
Under threatening skies, Acosta finished 0.018sec ahead of fellow Spaniard Alex Marquez of Ducati-Gresini and 0.070sec in front of his South African teammate Brad Binder.
Raul Fernandez posted the fourth-fastest time at the very end of the session, just ahead of Johann Zarco and Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi took seventh place for Aprilia, ahead of Honda's Joan Mir and Australian Jack Miller.
In the absence of reigning world champion Marc Marquez, who underwent surgery on his right foot and shoulder on Sunday, Jorge Martin, winner of both the sprint and the Grand Prix at Le Mans last weekend, failed to seize his chance.
The 2024 world champion, who had fallen in the morning during free practice, went down again in the afternoon and could do no better than 17th fastest.
With only the top 10 going directly into Q2, Martin will need to finish in the top two of Q1 to have a chance of a decent starting place on the grid.
Two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia, Marquez's teammate at Ducati, also missed out on direct qualification as he could only manage the 13th quickest time.