On a cool and overcast morning at Silverstone, Marquez fell at Farm corner shortly after the 15-minute mark, the Honda man suffering a low-side that forced him to switch to his second bike for the rest of the session.

At that point, Marquez had just been ousted from the top of the timesheets by Pramac Ducati's Scott Redding, although works rider Andrea Iannone would take over the top spot some 10 minutes later.

That was shortly followed by Vinales becoming the first rider to dip into the 2m03s, setting a 2m03.733s, although the second factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso shaved a further tenth off that with a 2m03.637s moments later.

In the final 10 minutes, Marquez lowered the bar to a 2m03.563s on his second bike, before Vinales lit up the timesheets with a 2m02.483s to move a full second clear of the rest of the field.

The only man who could get close to that time was Jorge Lorenzo, who ended up 0.282s adrift at the chequered flag on the best of the Yamahas, with Marquez's earlier time proving good enough for third.

Valentino Rossi moved the second works Yamaha up to fourth in the closing stages, albeit 1.108s off the pace of his future teammate Vinales.

Dovizioso held on for fifth, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Pol Espargaro, Iannone and Dani Pedrosa (Honda).

Completing the top 10 were Pramac duo Redding and Danilo Petrucci, with Brno winner Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) ending the first session of his home event 11th.

Having been given the all-clear to race this weekend after missing the last two races, Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda) was 19th, over three seconds off the pace.

Besides Marquez, Farm corner claimed two more victims in the form of Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) and newcomer Alex Lowes (Tech 3 Yamaha), who propped up the timesheets in his first official MotoGP session.

Cla	#	Driver	Bike	Time	Gap
1	25	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	2'02.483
2	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	2'02.765	0.282
3	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	2'03.563	1.080
4	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2'03.591	1.108
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2'03.637	1.154
6	44	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	2'03.714	1.231
7	29	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	2'04.027	1.544
8	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	2'04.037	1.554
9	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	2'04.138	1.655
10	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	2'04.170	1.687
11	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	2'04.247	1.764
12	41	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	2'04.443	1.960
13	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	2'04.473	1.990
14	68	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	2'04.491	2.008
15	6	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	2'04.905	2.422
16	19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	2'05.134	2.651
17	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	2'05.196	2.713
18	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	2'05.540	3.057
19	43	Jack Miller	Honda	2'05.662	3.179
20	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	2'06.016	3.533
21	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	2'06.225	3.742