Marc Marquez sent out a message to championship leader Stefan Bradl ahead of qualifying by beating him in third practice for the Moto2 British Grand Prix.
Bradl has been on pole at every round this season and showed signs in FP3 that he was in similar form this weekend, setting a 2:08.888 with a quarter of an hour to go. But Marquez, who was the previous pacesetter, rocketed back to the top of the timesheets with three minutes to go, lapping 0.341s quicker than the German.
Scott Redding was the fastest man in the dry session yesterday and the Briton continued to trouble the leaders with the third quickest time on Saturday morning. Randy Krummenacher, who was quickest in the wet practice yesterday, was fourth.
Michele Pirro continued to have the edge in the Gresini team, going fifth fastest with teammate Yuki Takahashi down in 19th. Claudio Corti was just behind in sixth for the Italtrans Racing Team.
Aleix Espargaro, who claimed his first Grand Prix podium last weekend, was seventh ahead of Swiss pair Dominique Aegerter and Thomas Luthi who both crashed out of strong positions in that race.
Kenan Sofuoglu also crashed out when a podium looked possible and the Turkish rider was the man to beat in the early stages of FP3. His fastest lap was set inside the first ten minutes of the session and he eventually dropped to tenth.
Bradley Smith took a while to get going after languishing down in 26th at one point but got quicker and quicker as the session unfolded and eventually made it up to 13th, 1.224s behind Marquez.
Kev Coghlan was only half a second behind his fellow Briton but with the intermediate class being so close, he ended up down in 21st. The Scotsman was ahead of Andrea Iannone, but the Italian best form has come on race day so far this year so he won't be too concerned with finishing final practice in 29th.