Marquez fastest in mixed conditions of Barcelona FP1

Marc Marquez topped the timesheets in a first free practice for the Catalan Grand Prix truncated by damp conditions in the early part of the session.

Overnight rain left the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in a damp state as practice got underway for the seventh round of the 2017 season.

A fairly active Moto3 session earlier had dried the surface out considerably, though only seven riders had set a time as the final 20 minutes of the session approached.

Tech3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco was the first to venture out on slick tyres, and after setting several session best sector times, the rest began to follow suit.

At the chequered flag it was Honda’s Marquez who took over at the top of the pile with a 1m45.875s, putting him 0.326 seconds clear of LCR’s Cal Crutchlow, who typically goes well in mixed conditions.

Mugello race winner Andrea Dovizioso completed the top three ahead of Dani Pedrosa, while the sister Tech3 YZR-M1 of Jonas Folger rounded out the top five.

Maverick Vinales slotted into sixth position on his factory Yamaha, with Aprilia’s Sam Lowes putting on a decent showing in the iffy conditions to end the session seventh fastest from Alvaro Bautista, Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci.

Several mistakes on Zarco’s initial laps on slicks, the result of a few damp patches still being present at the time, saw him abort his first run. The Frenchman quickly returned to the 2.89-mile Catalan track and set the 11^th fastest time of the morning.

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#JM43 takes the wrong chicane!
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Jack Miller ended FP1 12^th quickest, though only a handful of his laps on slick tyres counted as the Australian repeatedly used the wrong chicane at the end of the lap. New for this year, the revised final complex of circuit has been met with fierce criticism from riders.

Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo was an early pace setter in the damp conditions, but fell to 13^th by the end of the session. He headed Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro, with Karel Abraham, Valentino Rossi, Sylvain Guintoli, Bradley Smith and Aleix Espargaro the last of those to complete a flying lap.