Johann Zarco ended the final day of MotoGP pre-season testing in Qatar 0.247 seconds clear of Yamaha stablemate Valentino Rossi.
It was almost an hour and a half into Saturday's running before anyone posted a laptime, with LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow completing several tours, culminating in a 1:56.632s before he retreated to pitlane again.
Around 45 minutes later, Suzuki's Alex Rins took over from the Briton with a 1:56.277s, before Pramac's Danilo Petrucci edged ahead with a 1:56.064s. By now, more riders had made there way onto the circuit.
Petrucci further improved to a 1:55.928s, though soon found Ducati stablemate Andrea Dovizioso streak clear with a 1:55.356s on just the fifth lap of his run.
The Italian held onto top spot for an hour, with Petrucci and Crutchlow deposing him over the nex two hours.
With two hours remaining, Zarco guided his Tech3 Yamaha to 1:54.429s to go fastest of all, cementing his position with a follow-up effort of 1:54.029s, which was unchallenged come the chequered flag.
Saturday's test was cut short by an hour to allow for wet weather testing under the floodlights to check if the race could be run at night should rain appear.
Rossi suffered a crash at Turn 13 earlier in the day, but was able to rejoin the action and leaped up to second in the closing stages ahead of Dovizioso.
Crutchlow found himself shuffled back to fourth in the end, while Maverick Vinales – who spent the day working on improving the bike's electronics after suffering from a lack of traction on Friday – completed the top five with a late 1:54.571s.
Honda's Marc Marquez improved to sixth late in the day ahead of Alex Rins, who was the sole Suzuki present on Saturday as illness forced team-mate Andrea Iannone to miss proceedings.
Petrucci headed fellow Ducati men Jorge Lorenzo and Pramac team-mate Jack Miller, with Dani Pedrosa just 0.025s further adrift in 11th ahead of leading rookie Franco Morbidelli.
Bradley Smith was just 1.1s from the best pace on the KTM in 13th, while team-mate Pol Espargaro managed 19th and 47 laps having lost Friday's running to the effects of the back injury he sustained in Malaysia in January.
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