KTM’s Raul Fernandez stole the show in the dying seconds of Moto2’s FP3 as a drying Le Mans track witnessed an intense late-session shootout. 

Jorge Navarro and Augusto Fernandez completed the top-three with Jake Dixon and Sam Lowes finishing together in sixth and seventh respectively. 

Dixon had a tricky start to his Saturday proceedings with the Brit wheeling his Petronas machine back down pitlane, due to a damaged IMU, as morning practice got underway. Opposing fortunes greeted Fernandez as the Marc VDS rider found himself back in control of the standings after the opening laps registered. 

Nicolò Bulega, Navarro, Lorenzo Baldassarri and Remy Gardner held top-five positions after the opening 10 minutes with Dixon finally able to join the fold despite the mixed conditions out on track. 

Cameron Beaubier jumped to the top of the times with a 1’48.970 before the action stalled and the majority of the field returned to the pits - the drying track proving unsuitable for wets but not quite ready to attack on slicks. 

Marco Bezzecchi was the first to brave the change in tyres with the Italian shaving a full second off the American’s previous best before continuing to improve, however, his 1’45.275 effort remained nine-seconds adrift of Lowes’ overall Friday target.

The closing 13-minutes saw the rest of the class return to action, Hafizh Syahrin, Fernandez and Celestino Vietti the first to join the Sky rider with improving pace as the timing screens lit up in earnest. 

Syahrin took charge with 10 to go, before Fernandez bettered. Aron Canet rising to third as Joe Roberts and Tony Arbolino found their form but it was Lowes who was repeatedly back at the front as the next two laps came in. Arbolino and Lowes continued to battle as the clock counted down, the Italian outdoing the Brit by 0.14 on his eighth lap as Tom Luthi, Fernandez and Canet held the top-five. The pace increased as the track continued to dry and the duo once again swapped positions back and forth. Beaubier was back in the mix with five minutes left to play as he rose to fourth with Dixon up to eighth - however still outside of Q2. 

Arbolino had a firm hold on P1 as he set a 1’38.951 but with just two minutes remaining it seemed too big an ask for the Intact rider to bridge the gap to the 1’37.3 needed for the overall top-14. As the clock hit zero, Fernandez was back at the top before KTM’s rookie finally made his presence felt, 1’38.239 the fastest time achieved in the 40-minute session. Jorge Navarro split the namesakes for second with his final effort of the morning, Arbolino settling for fourth ahead of Canet, Dixon and Lowes with Bezzecchi taking eighth at the flag. Ai Ogura sat ninth from Roberts, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Stefano Manzi and Beaubier with Syahrin and Marcel Schrotter completing the top-15.