It took until the final minutes of the session before Jorge Lorenzo's Friday benchmark, a 1m30.463s, was challenged, although the Yamaha rider was the first man of the morning to dip beneath the 1m31s.

The Spaniard held sway at the top of the times with a 1m30.743s, set with 12 minutes to go, before Marquez recorded a 1m30.507s to go quickest of the session, if not overall, some five minutes later.

That was soon corrected as Marquez improved to a 1m30.258s on his next lap, the Repsol Honda rider beating Lorenzo's Friday time by 0.205s and taking over as the fastest man of the weekend so far.

Only Vinales could threaten Marquez in the closing stages, the Suzuki rider getting to within 0.103s of his compatriot after establishing himself as the second-quickest rider of the session.

Lorenzo was classed as third overall on the strength of his Friday effort, but third quickest in the session was Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati, 0.385s off the pace.

He was followed by Dani Pedrosa on the second factory Honda and Lorenzo, with Pol Espargaro bagging the final spot in the top six overall after getting within half a second of Marquez on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

Next up, both for the session and overall, were Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) and Andrea Iannone (Ducati), while Valentino Rossi only just squeezed into the automatic Q2 spots with a late effort good enough for ninth, 0.594s off the pace.

Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha) sealed the final automatic place in the pole shootout, forcing fellow countrymen Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati) to go through Q1.

Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda) was another rider to miss out on the top 10, after suffering a crash in the closing stages of the session.

Mika Kallio once more brought up the rear on the KTM, but this time was only 2.514s off the pace and only a couple of tenths behind Loris Baz on the Avintia Ducati in 21st.

Third practice results (session only):

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'30.258
2	25	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1'30.361	0.103
3	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'30.643	0.385
4	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'30.711	0.453
5	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'30.743	0.485
6	44	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'30.745	0.487
7	41	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'30.769	0.511
8	29	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'30.834	0.576
9	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'30.852	0.594
10	38	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'31.002	0.744
11	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'31.023	0.765
12	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'31.147	0.889
13	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'31.308	1.050
14	6	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1'31.410	1.152
15	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'31.550	1.292
16	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'31.589	1.331
17	19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'31.894	1.636
18	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'31.976	1.718
19	68	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'31.991	1.733
20	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	1'32.240	1.982
21	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'32.464	2.206
22	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	1'32.772	2.514