Rain hit the track at around 7pm local time in Losail, an hour before the scheduled start of the session and while the final Moto3 practice session of the day was running.
Although the rain lasted for a brief period, it left the circuit too wet to allow any MotoGP running on slick tyres, prompting race control to reduce the length of the session and not count it towards qualifying groups.
Despite the conditions being less than appropriate, the majority of the field headed out of the pitlane when the practice officially began as scheduled at 8:10pm local time.
Augusto Fernandez set the early pace with a time of 2m08.974s on his GasGas Tech3 KTM, before making a number of improvements to dip well into the 2m07s bracket.
His new team-mate and reigning Moto2 champion Pedro Acosta briefly shot to the top of the times with a 2m07.441s flier, before Jack Miller became the next rider from the KTM stable to go fastest, lowering the benchmark to a 2m07.663s.
That was until Fernandez put himself back at the front, becoming the first rider to break the 2m07s barrier with a time of 2m06.938s on his GasGas-branded RC16.
Acosta also managed to make a small improvement on his next flier, reinstating a Tech3 1-2 at the front of the field.
Source: Autosport