The Australian rode a superb opening lap to emerge in fifth place and continued to advance strongly within the lead group to third place after four laps; he maintained his speed to the end of the race to finish just five seconds behind the race-long winner. With third choice of gate for both GP motos he has every chance of a podium finish in the GP.
 
Jed Beaton: "Today was a good day. I didn’t get the best start but after two turns I managed to come inside the top ten and then I worked to pass several riders to finish third. It was a good race and I have a good gate pick for tomorrow so I’m looking forward to it; let’s hope that the weather will stay decent tonight to preserve the track."
 
Later in the day Clement Desalle of the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team sensibly took no risks in MXGP qualification as deep ruts developed following recent heavy rain despite the sterling efforts of the track staff to maintain the surface. The Belgian started fifth and maintained a watching brief on the leading four to earn a good choice of gate for the GP motos. His KRT teammate Julien Lieber held a strong sixth place until falling at a particularly tortuous section of the track and being trapped under his bike but he showed great determination to recover to fourteenth place at the finish, immediately behind the Gebben Van Venrooy Kawasaki’s of Alessandro Lupino and Maxime Desprey.