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Practice report

Aragon MotoGP: Marquez leads Rossi in first practice

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez was two tenths up on main rival Valentino Rossi in the first practice session of the Aragon Grand Prix weekend.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez led for almost the entirety of the session, having established a massive gap from the get go - and while other riders eventually closed in on the time, the Honda man would not be dethroned.

Through the first set of timed laps, Marquez quickly stormed to the front, becoming the first rider to dip below 1m50s with a 1m49.748s lap, and then going almost six tenths quicker than that with a 1m49.172s.

That put Marquez well out of reach for the rest of the pack, with fellow Honda rider Cal Crutchlow occupying second place with a time 0.670s off early on.

Jorge Lorenzo, the winner of the two most recent Aragon Grands Prix, aborted his first run after having a moment and running wide at Turn 16, with Yamaha reporting that a bad tyre was likely behind the issue.

He rejoined shortly thereafter and shot up to second place, but was still more than half a second down on Marquez.

The championship leader upped the pace once again just past halfway, Marquez posting a 1m48.830s, which, at that point, left everyone but Lorenzo and Tech 3 rider Pol Espargaro more than a second adrift.

That remained until the closing stages of the session, when Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso moved to 0.348s off Marquez and then had his time matched exactly by Suzuki's Maverick Vinales.

Finally, at the chequered flag, it was Rossi's turn to take the runner-up spot - and the Italian occupied it for good, ending up 0.186s off the pace.

Behind Vinales and Dovizioso was Lorenzo, who did not improve on his final run, and Andrea Iannone, who was reportedly in a serious deal of pain due to his back injury.

Danilo Petrucci, Aleix Espargaro, Pol Espargaro and Crutchlow made up the top 10 as the final four riders within a second of Marquez.

Misano race winner Dani Pedrosa was only 11th, 1.2s off his teammate. Of the replacement riders, Tech 3's Alex Lowes took 17th, while Nicky Hayden scored 20th, three seconds off Marquez's lap.

Yonny Hernandez and Tito Rabat were the two fallers of the session, Hernandez crashing before a time had been set on the board at Turn 16, and Rabat losing the front end in the dying seconds of the session at Turn 2.

Aleix Espargaro also had an issue at Turn 2, going straight on, but managed to get the bike stopped in the gravel just before arriving at the barriers.

Free practice 1 results

Pos.#DriverBikeLapsTimeGap
1 93 Marc Marquez Honda 17 1'48.830  
2 46 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 19 1'49.016 0.186
3 25 Maverick Viñales Suzuki 16 1'49.178 0.348
4 4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 16 1'49.178 0.348
5 99 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 16 1'49.573 0.743
6 29 Andrea Iannone Ducati 17 1'49.601 0.771
7 9 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 19 1'49.719 0.889
8 41 Aleix Espargaro Suzuki 16 1'49.731 0.901
9 44 Pol Espargaro Yamaha 19 1'49.738 0.908
10 35 Cal Crutchlow Honda 17 1'49.756 0.926
11 26 Dani Pedrosa Honda 17 1'49.993 1.163
12 45 Scott Redding Ducati 18 1'50.113 1.283
13 6 Stefan Bradl Aprilia 18 1'50.368 1.538
14 8 Hector Barbera Ducati 17 1'50.714 1.884
15 53 Tito Rabat Honda 20 1'50.816 1.986
16 50 Eugene Laverty Ducati 15 1'50.958 2.128
17 22 Alex Lowes Yamaha 19 1'51.103 2.273
18 19 Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 18 1'51.139 2.309
19 68 Yonny Hernandez Ducati 15 1'51.388 2.558
20 69 Nicky Hayden Honda 17 1'51.873 3.043
21 76 Loris Baz Ducati 15 1'52.680 3.850

 

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