The rain that fell during the night and early morning forced the drivers to mount wet weather tyres but it didn't take long for the conditions to improve. The track dried out and the pack raced to the pits to change into slicks.

Up until then, Paolo Necchi had been the quickest ahead of Venezuelan Ardagna Perez and Enrico Moncada, who later ran off the track to bring his session to an end.

The dry track mixed things up on the leaderboard with top spot continually switching hands. The returning Sergio Rota, Paolo Necchi, Enrico Moncada and Pietro Zumerle were all fighting it out. The defining moment came three minutes from the end when Gaetano Ardagna, having posted a time of 2:13.144, was involved in a spectacular crash. Luckily, he walked away unharmed.

The red flag came out so that the Venezuelan could be attended to and the crash barriers in the run off area repaired, freezing the standings.