Cal Crutchlow led Jack Miller by 0.020s in FP3 for the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix, while no Yamahas made it into Q2, with 19th-placed Valentino Rossi suffering a late crash.
As most focused on long runs for much of the session, overall improvements on the combined standings were sparse.
Suzuki's Alex Rins set the early pace on the individual timesheet with a 1:49.073s, with Friday pacesetter Marc Marquez two tenths adrift.
A follow-up effort of 1:48.154s from Rins moved him up from 16th to seventh on the combined standings, which was the only significant overall improvement until the closing moments.
With half the session gone, LCR's Crutchlow usurped Rins on the FP3 timesheet with a 1:48.041s despite crashing at Turn 2 just 10 minutes prior.
The pace began to increase as the session entered its final 10 minutes, with Pramac's Miller moving into the top 10 on combined times in eighth, while teammate Danilo Petrucci took over top spot in the session with a 1:47.929s.
Petrucci's next lap of 1:47.880s moved him into fifth overall and edged him 0.161s clear of the field at the top of the FP3 times.
Crutchlow returned to the top of the timesheets with a 1:47.393s in the dying seconds of the session, while Miller shadowed him by just 0.020s – the pair moving up to second and third on the combined times.
Marquez's 1:47.38s from Friday kept him top on the combined standings, with the Honda rider fifth in FP3 behind Andrea Iannone [Suzuki] and Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso.
The sister works Honda of Dani Pedrosa was sixth in the session, with Petrucci, Alvaro Bautista, Rins and Jorge Lorenzo completing the top 10 and the entry list for Q2.
Pedrosa's late improvement proved disastrous for Yamaha, as Maverick Vinales was forced down to 11th on the combined times, while stablemate Rossi was unable to improve on 18th after crashing at Turn 2 on his final flying lap.
With Tech3 duo Johann Zarco and Hafizh Syahrin only 14th and 20th respectively, the pole shootout session coming later this afternoon is currently devoid on Yamahas.
Avintia stand-in Jordi Torres was a faller in the early stages of FP3, while KTM's Pol Espargaro was unable to rejoin the session after going down at Turn 15 moments later and aggravating the left shoulder he injured at Brno last month. He has been declared unfit to continue for the remainder of the weekend.
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