Nicolo Bulega recovered from a heavy highside in the early part of a crash-strewn third practice for the Czech Grand Prix to head into qualifying fastest of all.
After Friday’s running was affected by poor weather, third practice presented the Moto3 field with its first dry session.
From the off, the green track conditions caught riders out, with British Talent Team rider John McPhee the first faller at Turn 10.
The Scotsman was followed into the Turn 10 gravel by Albert Arenas, while just a moment afterwards Philipp Oettl – who had just gone fastest with a 2m08.899s – was collected by Jules Danilo at Turn 3.
Bulega made a mess of his Sky VR46 KTM in his heavy fall exiting Turn 10 and was taken to the medical centre for checks.
The Italian was unscathed, and his team miraculously repaired his bike in time for a final push in the closing five minutes of the session.
Bulega repaid the efforts of his mechanics with a last-gasp lap of 2m08.773s to take over at the top of the timesheets from Oettle, while Aron Canet completed the top three.
Leopard Racing’s Livio Loi was an encouraging fourth ahead of SIC58 rider Tony Arbolino and championship leader Joan Mir on the sister Leopard machine.
Andrea Migno – who came off at Turn 7 10 minutes into the session – pipped former team-mate Romano Fenati to seventh, with Bo Bendsneyder and Marcos Ramirez completing the top 10 from Maria Herrera.
Fabio Di Giannantonio will be the sole Gresini representative this weekend after Jorge Martin pulled out due to the ankle injury he sustained in Germany.
Di Giannantonio ended third practice 12th, with Darryn Binder’s injury replacement Dennis Foggia impressing in 13th ahead of Ayumu Sasaki, who was one of many fallers in that session. Gabriel Rodrigo completed the top 15.
Nicolo Antonelli, Tatsuki Suzuki and Enea Bastianini also visited Brno’s gravel traps during final practice.
