The Aprilia RS-GP machines, performing better and better in races and qualifying, faced a further stumbling block in the Moravian weather. The rain that fell ahead of FP3 quashed any chances Aleix and Andrea may have had of attempting an assault on top-ten positions which would have sent them straight through to Q2. The times, inevitably higher for everyone, froze the positions where they were at the end of qualifying practice on Friday.

Even the Q1 session was held in wet track conditions and, although the lines gradually dried out, it was not enough to avoid using rain tyres. In these conditions, Aleix finished the session in eight place (at 2’06.284) which places him on the eighteenth spot, and therefore the sixth row, of the starting grid tomorrow. Andrea stopped the clock at 2’07.923, which translates into the 23rd place time and the eighth row on the grid.