Suzuki's Andrea Iannone ended the second day of MotoGP test in Qatar fastest of all after a late lap put him 0.041 seconds ahead of long-time leader Andrea Dovizioso.
Just as it was on Thursday, track action was at a minimum in the opening hours of the session, with most waiting for slightly cooler conditions to appear.
After two hours, only Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo had a laptime on the board with a 1:56.745s, though he found himself back in his garage as a light rain shower appeared.
With four hours remaining, conditions had improved enough to tempt more riders out onto the circuit, with Aleix Espargaro deposing Lorenzo's with a 1:56.580s, which he improved on his Aprilia to a 1:56.335s next time around.
Marc Marquez guided his Honda to a 1:55.446s just over ten minutes later, before Dovizioso posted a 1:55.428s. A brief red flag period for crashes for Pramac duo Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci at Turn 1 rounded out the fourth hour of the day.
Dovizioso, who spent his time comparing different chassis, improve to a 1:54.734s with three hours to go, upping his pace again to a 1:54.627s an hour later.
This stood as the time to beat until the final 20 minutes of the day, when Iannone shot to the top of the standings with a 1:54.586s. With most having already called it a day, the Italian was unchallenged when the chequered flag flew.
Marquez ended the day third fastest despite a late fall while he was out testing Honda's new aerodynamic fairing, with Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco a further tenth adrift in fourth ahead of Rins.
Cal Crutchlow was sixth quickest on his LCR Honda ahead of Yamaha's Maverick Vinales, the Spaniard focusing his efforts on improving corner speed and acceleration on his YZR-M1.
Losing two hours after his spill earlier in the day, Petrucci was able to recover to eighth ahead of team-mate Miller and the second Repsol RC213V of Dani Pedrosa.
Valentino Rossi was only able to improve on his Thursday best – which was good enough for seventh – by a tenth on Friday, and was 11th fastest as a result ahead of Aprilia's Espargaro, leading rookie Takaaki Nakagami and Lorenzo.
KTM's Pol Espargaro was absent from Friday's running due to the back injury which forced him out of the Thailand test, but hopes to ride on the final day. Mika Kallio took his place, and brought up the rear of the 24-strong field on his RC16.
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