Aleix Espargaro led Aprilia Racing team-mate Maverick Vinales in a fast and frantic final stages to Friday Practice for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez, round four of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship.

Toppling the remarkable Dani Pedrosa off the top of the timesheets following the wild-card’s stunning P1 effort, there was disappointment for a number of the anticipated big hitters with each of the top three in the standings - Marco Bezzecchi, Pecco Bagnaia and Alex Rins - plus Fabio Quartararo failing to make it through to P2.

With scorching temperatures raising concerns that the best of the lap times had already come in the more ambient P1 session, a slight cooling of the conditions in the final minutes allowed some riders to gain on what looked to be a very static leaderboard.

Indeed, with precious little movement, it appeared as though Pedrosa's AM benchmark looked strong enough to withstand the time attacks from the PM.

However, having shown it was possible to make gains with the only noticeable move inside the top ten earlier in the session, Maverick Vinales popped to the top with a 1min 36.710secs, only to be bettered by just -0.002s courtesy of his team-mate Espargaro.

A welcome fillip for the Italian team having seen its strong form in Argentina hampered by rain and be hampered by race-day issues in the United States, Aprilia heads into Q2 looking strong, not least with Miguel Oliveira in seventh on the RNF machine ensuring a trio of RS-GPs make it into Q2.

Though unable to improve his time, Pedrosa was still fast enough for third in what will be his first time in Q2 on the KTM RC16, ahead of Jorge Martin, who also didn't improve but made it through in fourth.

Jack Miller joined Pedrosa in Q2 with a strong late effort to fifth - albeit at the expense of his team-mate Brad Binder, who was knocked down to 11th - while Johann Zarco was the big winner as he rose from outside the top ten to sixth.

Behind Oliveira, Alex Marquez and Luca Marini ensured four Ducati riders were into Q2 without issue in eighth and tenth, the pair split by the only competitive Honda runner Takaaki Nakagami, the Japanese rider reaching Q2 for the first time this season.

With the likes of Oliveira, Pedrosa and Nakagami perhaps the surprise Practice form men, it meant there were some big names faced with a task on Saturday morning to qualify well.

Chief amongst them was Bagnaia, the Ducati rider - coming to Spain on the back of a fast but frail American event during which he won the Sprint but fell from the lead in the Feature - never looking terribly quick as he ailed to 13th.

That was one place behind series leader Bezzecchi, who too looked off the pace all day, and Rins, who might have fancied his chances had he not dropped his LCR Honda with four minutes remaining.

A pole sitter in 2019, 2020 and 2021, many were looking to Quartararo for a revival of fortunes on the Yamaha too. However, having put himself under pressure as one of only two riders not to attempt a soft tyre lap in the generally faster AM session, he then made a mistake on his one quick lap in the PM session. He could only manage 16th best.

Elsewhere, Joan Mir ran off once and crashed twice on the Repsol Honda, while new team-mate Iker Lecuona was also down at the final corner, the Spaniard briefly bringing out the red flags when his bike pierced the air fence.

There was also double disappointment for Ducati Corse, with Enea Bastianini making minimal trips onto circuit to conserve his fitness and thus only managing 21st best.

CLICK HERE for full Practice, Qualifying and RACE Results from the 2023 Spanish MotoGP

2023 Spanish MotoGP Practice 2 Results | Jerez

FP1 + FP2 Results Combined