Marc Marquez once again topped practice for the Grand Prix of the Americas with a lap just two-tenths off the lap record.
The Honda rider dipped below the 2m03s mark for the first time this weekend with a 2m03.741, however Ducati's Andrea Iannone closed in during third practice, ending up just under two-tenths adrift.
Riders got their first taste of Michelin's new medium rear-tyre during FP3 which had been flown in from France overnight in answer to the problems experienced in Argentina last weekend. It features a new harder carcass to avoid any potential failures.
With the focus switching away from the tyre and to times, they quickly began to fall as riders looked to ensure their place in Q2.
While Marquez never came under any real pressure, the now customary shootout for the top ten began slightly earlier than usual with 13 minutes remaining. Riders slowly built towards faster times for an explosive final five minutes.
Behind Marquez and Iannone, Jorge Lorenzo closed to within just over half a second, but the gaps behind them were much closer, with no gap greater than three-tenths of a second.
Only 0.005s behind Lorenzo was Suzuki's Maverick Viñales, followed by Honda's Cal Crutchlow who completed the top five riders with a time of 2m04.408 which came on his penultimate lap of the session.
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Loris Baz (Avintia Racing), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) formed the top ten.
Pol Espargaro, Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) and Bradley Smith will all be forced to go through the Q1 session and battle for the top two spots.
Jack Miller, despite a broken bone in his right-foot following a fall on Friday, pushed through the pain to finish 17th.
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