As the premier class action at the Monster Energy Grand Prix commenced on Friday morning, Marc Marquez set the pace for the MotoGP™ field, with Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi also in the top three.

Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) led in the final stages and increased his pace further in the final seconds to lead by 0.189s from teammate Pedrosa with a 1’34.328 best time. Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was 0.253s behind in third as the fast times came at the end of the session.

Rossi’s colleague Jorge Lorenzo had looked like he would end the outing in second place but was bumped down to fourth by Pedrosa and Rossi’s late improvements.

Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) were fifth and sixth respectively, with Bradl having led for much of the practice.

The top ten was completed by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team), Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing), with that leading group of ten riders split by just 0.745s.

There was a crash for Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith at turn 9 early on but he was ok and returned to the track on his second bike to finish 11th.


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