KTM rider Pedro Acosta ended Friday practice at the Catalan Grand Prix on top, as a slew of big MotoGP names - including title hopeful Jorge Martin - failed to make the Q2 cut.

Martin, who had a big crash in the opening session, was outside of the top 10 for most of the hour-long practice and eventually consigned himself to 17th with a late fall at Turn 2.

With the KTM RC16 seemingly thriving, as expected, in Barcelona's low-grip conditions, Acosta and works team-mate Brad Binder slotted into the top three 0.070s apart - with Gresini Ducati rider Alex Marquez between them.

Like the previous weekend at Le Mans, the field spread appeared minuscule here - with the top eight covered by just 0.136s.

Apart from the aforementioned trio it featured Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez, LCR Honda's Johann Zarco, VR46 Ducati's Fabio Di Giannantonio, Aprilia's points leader Marco Bezzecchi and works Honda rider Joan Mir.

Two Yamaha riders propped up the top 10 in Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) and Fabio Quartararo (factory team).

Last-gasp improvements from Zarco and Quartararo meant no space in the top 10 (and thus directly in Q2) for Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) and Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati), who had had an overall difficult day as the sole factory Ducati rider in Marc Marquez's injury absence.

Straight to Q2: Acosta, Marquez, Binder, R Fernandez, Zarco, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi, Mir, Miller, Quartararo

Will contest Q1: Bastianini, Bagnaia, Ogura, Moreira, Morbidelli, Aldeguer, Martin, Marini, Razgatlioglu, Vinales, Rins, A Fernandez

So Martin will have to fight off the likes of Bastianini and Bagnaia in Q1, but also Aprilia stablemate Ai Ogura and Gresini Ducati's Fermin Aldeguer.

Only three riders were over a second off the pace, and all three narrowly so - with injury returnee Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) heading up that group in 20th.

Martin aside, there were crashes for Ogura (at the same corner, Turn 2), Alex Rins (Turn 5) and Mir (outlap crash at Turn 10).

Friday practice times

1 Pedro Acosta (KTM) 1m38.710s
2 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.018s
3 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.070s
4 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.078s
5 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +0.079s
6 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.109s
7 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +0.121s
8 Joan Mir (Honda) +0.136s
9 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +0.201s
10 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.269s
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11 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.349s
12 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.350s
13 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.405s
14 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.464s
15 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.585s
16 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +0.612s
17 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +0.679s
18 Luca Marini (Honda) +0.680s
19 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +0.821s
20 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +1.001s
21 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +1.042s
22 Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha) +1.225s