Deniz Oncu maintained his spot at the head of the timesheets even as rivals made sizeable improvements in the third and final Practice session for the Spanish Moto3 at Jerez.

The Turkish rider - who is still chasing his first win in the quarter-litre series - was far and away the quickest contender on Friday, but with more ambient temperatures expected on Saturday morning, it was anticipated his four tenths advantage wouldn't mean so much in P3.

Nevertheless, Oncu simply improved his own benchmark to compensate, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider stopping the clock at 1m 45.401secs, a time only one other could get to within two tenths of.

That person was David Alonso, the Colombian rookie impressing to return runaway 2022 World Champions GasGas to the fore in second place.

Indeed, it was a strong start to the day for the sister factory GasGas and KTM teams all-round with another rookie in Jose Antonio Rueda (KTM) and Ryusei Yamanaka (GasGas) making gains to complete the top four.

Pre-season title favourite Jaume Masia completed the top five from Xavier Artigas, while Andrea Migno held his spot inside the Q2-qualifying top 14 positions in seventh.

Of those to make big gains between the sessions, David Munoz surged up the order for eighth, while CFMoto's Joel Kelso - returning to action this weekend after being injured in a bizarre post-race collision at Portimao - made huge gains to end up in ninth.

Joining the above in Q2 automatically will be Ayumu Sasaki, Kaito Toba and Scott Ogden, while championship leader Daniel Holgado scraped through in 13th, as did Tatsuki Suzuki in 14th.

Of those forced into Q1, Diogo Moreira - who shares the series lead with Holgado - will need to go again after only managing the 15th best lap, as will COTA race winner Ivan Ortola, who was down in 22nd.

CLICK HERE to view 2023 Spanish Moto3 Practice, Qualifying and Race Results from Jerez

Spanish Moto3 | Practice 3 Results

P1 + P2 + P3 Combined | Jerez | Conditions - Dry, Hot