Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), who trails Fernandez by just 1.5 Championship points with three races to go, was 16th-fastest on a 1:35.876. A former Championship leader, Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) was classified just 25th after he crashed following contact when Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed Up) rode down his inside at the ‘MG’ corner (Turn 10), an incident which stewards were set to investigate. Vietti’s teammate Niccolo Antonelli also had a spill, at Turn 4 in the latter minutes of the session, before Jeremy Alcoba’s (Liqui Moly Intact GP) crash at Doohan Corner (Turn 1) which brought about the red flag that cost Dixon his lap time. Then, right at the end, Sean Dylan Kelly (American Racing) crashed at MG, with his bike nearly collecting Marcel Schrötter’s (Liqui Moly Intact GP).