Raffin and Lowes came together as the session ended, with the Briton finishing his final lap right behind Raffin.

Lowes was right on the cusp of making it to the top 15 and provisionally securing an automatic Q2 spot, but he ended up 16th, while Raffin made it in ninth.

The Briton then ran into the side of Raffin's RW NTS bike, the latter barely managing to stay on, and Lowes was visibly frustrated after the incident as well.

Lowes was penalised for "riding in an irresponsible manner, deliberately causing contact with another rider, thereby endangering both riders", and he will be relegated to the back of the grid in Sunday's race.

Since his return from an ill-fated season with Aprilia in MotoGP, Lowes hasn't found much success in the past two years in Moto2 as he is yet to finish a race higher than fifth.

For 2020, Lowes will join top Moto2 team Marc VDS alongside 2019 title favourite Alex Marquez.

Raffin meanwhile is in his sixth Moto2 round of the season, having replaced Steven Odendaal at NTS RW, the team he will join full-time in 2020.