The 29-year-old posted the fastest time of 1min 37.536sec on his BK8 Gresini Ducati at Montmelo to edge out Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

Alex’s Marquez’s brother Marc Marquez, a six-time world champion and the current overall leader, came in third.

The two brothers are battling for the championship although Marc leads his younger sibling by a dominant 175 points at the top of the standings after a seventh successive victory a fortnight ago at the Hungarian MotoGP.

“Alex is the fastest, I’ll try to stay close to him. I have a better chance in the long race,” said Marc Marquez ahead of Saturday’s sprint.

“The weekend is going perfectly… I’m confident it can be a great Sprint for us,” said Alex Marquez.

Despite a strong practice session on Friday KTM’s Brad Binder could only come in 11th.

Francesco Bagnaia continued to struggle and will start from 21st on the grid, his worst result since starting last in the 2022 Portuguese Grand Prix.