The lightweight class opened yet another fine morning in Portugal and it was a bittersweet one for Jaume Masia. The Spaniard was the early leader of the session and then found three tenths of a second more than his rivals in the final time attack to top the session but he also got sanctioned with a double long lap penalty for irresponsible riding in FP2. Friday leader Albert Arenas did not need to improve to secure a ticket to Q2 but the championship leader did improve to finish second overall. Compatriot Jeremy Alcoba continued to shine, this time from third position and as the final rider within half a second of Masia.

After missing out on some track time on Friday, Gabriel Rodrigo climbed all the way up to fourth, with Deniz Oncu joining the top five positions. Andrea Migno was sixth, with only a tenth of a second separating the rest of the top ten, beginning with Kaito Toba and closely followed by Sergio Garcia, Raul Fernandez and Celestino Vietti. Dennis Foggia in 11th position was seven tenths slower than his teammate but just like him, he too has a double long lap penalty to serve in Sunday’s race.

The remaining top 14 positions in the combined standings went to Ayumu Sasaki, Barry Baltus and Yuki Kunii, leaving championship hopefuls Ai Ogura and Tony Arbolino to fight it out in Q1 with the likes of John McPhee, Romano Fenati or Niccolo Antonelli.

Results: