Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez ended the opening MotoGP session at MotorLand Aragon ahead of the 14th round of the 2016 season fastest after a convincing performance from the championship leader.
Marquez was one of the first riders to use the hard rear Michelin tyre in the session and was mighty on it. The Spaniard, who has a 43-point lead in the standings coming into this weekend, managed a 1m48.830s which put him nearly a second clear at one stage.
A late final lap from Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi on a fresh hard rear slick cut Marquez’ advantage down to just under two tenths of a second. Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales struggled in the early part of the session, languishing down at the lower reaches of the top 10. But he too came alive in the closing stages of the 45-minute free practice and went third quickest with a lap of 1m49.178, which was an identical time to that of fourth-placed Andrea Dovizioso.
Jorge Lorenzo was fifth fastest on the second of the factory Yamahas, half a second adrift of his teammate and seven tenths down on session leader Marquez. Andrea Iannone battled through pain in his back to finish FP1 a very respectable sixth quickest on a 1m49.601. The Italian suffered a cracked T3 vertebra in a crash at Misano two weeks ago, forcing him to miss the race. He has been declared fit to contest the Aragon weekend, though whether he’ll choose to carry on remains to be seen.
Danilo Petrucci enjoyed a solid morning in seventh on the Pramac Ducati ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Pol Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow, whilst Misano winner Dani Pedrosa finished the session two tenths outside of the top 10 in 11th.
Nicky Hayden made his first Grand Prix appearance since Valencia last year, the 2006 World Champion standing in for the injured Jack Miller at Marc VDS. Having been competing in the World Superbike Championship on a Honda Fireblade this year, it’ll take a few sessions for Hayden to get back up to speed on a MotoGP prototype. He ended the session 20th, three seconds off the pace, which is a fairly respectable effort.
Twitter: Tricky turn 2 claims another, @TitoRabat suffers his first fall of the weekend.
#RiderOK #AragonGP https://t.co/lXU5PbRYe4 (@MotoGP)
Hayden was just half a second off of Aspar’s Yonny Hernandez, who crashed right at the start of the session at Turn 2, and was also just one second off of teammate Tito Rabat’s time in 15th. Incidentally, Rabat also tumbled off at T2 at the end of FP1.
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