Dani Pedrosa narrowly pipped Jorge Lorenzo to the fastest time in a delayed Saturday morning practice session at a murky Brno.
Poor early weather conditions pushed the morning's whole program back by half an hour, although by the time MotoGP practice commenced the track was basically dry.
Honda rider Pedrosa went on to produce the best time of the weekend so far – a 1m57.201s – with his last lap of the session.
That allowed him to pip championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by 0.017sec. Andrea Dovizioso was third on the second works Honda, 0.3sec off the pace and just ahead of Casey Stoner, who showed better form on the lead Ducati after a frustrating Friday.
The other three Yamahas were next up, factory rider Valentino Rossi head of the Tech 3 pair.
The session saw two crashes, with the already-injured Randy de Puniet limping away after falling from his LCR Honda. Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista also crashed at Turn 3, and had to be taken from the scene on a stretcher.