Raul Fernandez was the surprise pace setter at the end of Practice for the Qatar MotoGP as the penultimate round of season kicked off under the floodlights of the Lusail International Circuit.

The Spaniard hit the top of the timesheets during the latter stages of the session on the CryptoData RNF Racing Aprilia to head up Fabio di Giannantonio at the end of Friday's action.

Despite the unfamiliar names at the summit come the end of the session, title contenders Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin - who enter the event split by just 14 points in favour of the former - safely made it through to Q2 directly.

A welcome fillip for the Malaysian team, Fernandez's time of 1m 52.843s would give him a slender 0.049s margin over di Giannantonio, who was the quickest of four Ducati riders to crack the top ten.

On a strong evening for Aprilia, factory riders Maverick Vinales - who set the fastest time only for it to be cancelled by yellow flags - and Aleix Espargaro made it three RS-GPs inside the top five in third and fifth respectively. Splitting the Aprilia pair was top KTM rider Brad Binder in fourth.

Luca Marini rounded out the top six, with Prima Pramac Racing's Martin leading factory stablemate Bagnaia by a mere 0.007s.

Augusto Fernandez flew the flag for GasGas Factory Racing Tech 3 in ninth, with Marc Marquez the only representative from Honda to book his place straight through to Q2.

It means several fancied names will go again in Q1, among them Jack Miller in 11th - the culprit in causing the yellow flag that scuppered Vinales' session-topping effort - Alex Marquez in 12th, Marco Bezzecchi in 15th and Malaysian MotoGP winner Enea Bastianini, the Italian having it all to do after only turning in the 18th fastest lap.

Qatar MotoGP, Lusail International Circuit - Practice Results