Britain's Fraser Rogers has been on a steep learning curve on his Moto2 debut at Portimao as he stands in for Barry Baltus.
Rogers, who is riding for the NTS RW Racing team, managed to cut his gap to the leaders by another second yesterday and aims to make more progress today in Portugal.
"During FP3 I could really improve. I could handle the bike much better. During QP I thought I could go even faster but I wanted to do it too quickly instead of taking small steps forward," said Rogers.
"Although I managed to close the gap to the fastest riders, I wasn't happy with the way I was riding. Tomorrow, during the warm-up, I will go back to the approach I took during FP3. My goal for tomorrow's race is to finish."