Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini was back at the MotoGP sharp end at Barcelona as practice prepared for the Catalan GP.

Securing the third fastest time of the opening day, due to his 1’39.890 penultimate effort in FP2, Bastianini had only a pair of Aprilia’s in front of him at the close of play in his second visit to the 4.6km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on premier class machinery.

“The feeling was good from the start,” the 24-year-old Ducati rider explained. “I make many laps today on the morning to bring the pace, because here it's very important to make at the good moment the pickup.

“This afternoon I work more with the hard on the rear but for the moment is not the best solution,” Bastianini explained of the weekend’s most important decision. "I was slow, not fast like what I want but the time attack stay nice and for tomorrow I think we can do something more to entry in the second qualifying.

“Always the tyre is complicated, here especially because the grip is too low and we work a lot inside the box to bring this grip inside the track, but for the moment, I don't know which tyre is better for the race.

“Usually I'm fast in the second part of the race but here I think the drop will be very, very strong after five/six laps. We know this and it's more important of all the races to arrive with the tyre the most new possible.”