Yuki Takahashi left it late before topping the timesheets in second practice for the Moto2 Grand Prix of Portugal.
The session was run in damp conditions after heavy rain fell at the end of the preceding MotoGP practice session, and only 16 of the 40 riders set a competitive time.
In the end it was the final lap of all that made the difference as Takahashi sneaked ahead of QMMF Racing's Ricard Cardus.
The Spaniard took the fastest time from Bradley Smith with seventeen minutes remaining and looked set to hang on to it despite a fall in the closing minutes.
But with track conditions steadily improving, Takahashi set a time of 1:51.606, which was a full nine seconds shy of his FP1 effort, but was enough to put him 0.354 ahead of Cardus.
Gresini Racing Moto2 teammate Michele Pirro ventured out on track late on and climbed up to third, with Smith finishing fourth despite staying in the garage as the session drew to a close.
Marc Marquez made a brief appearance and clocked the fifth fastest time, 2.374s off the pace but with conditions so tricky, few conclusions can be drawn from the times in this session.
Randy Krummenacher was the first rider out on track and finished sixth, just ahead of Xavier Simeon and Raffaele de Rosa.
As expected, Mapfre Aspar had a rider in the top ten but this time it was Javier Fores. The 25-year-old took ninth as teammate Julian Simon chose not to go out at all.
Scott Redding completed the top ten for Marc VDS Racing while fellow Brit Kev Coghlan sat the session out, not wanting to repeat his morning accident.
Max Neukirchner didn't set a time either after going to hospital as a result of injuries sustained in a crash this morning. As a result, the German has been advised to sit out the rest of the weekend.
