Brno MotoGP: Zarco leads Marquez in wet opening practice
Tech 3 Yamaha rider Johann Zarco set the pace in a wet first MotoGP practice session for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.
Johann Zarco, Monster Yamaha Tech 3
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The Frenchman jumped into the lead with just one minute to go, his time of 2m05.201s proving to be 0.120s quicker than Ducati man Jorge Lorenzo's earlier benchmark.
Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa traded the lead in the latter stages of the session, but the duo ended up only third and fourth, as Marc Marquez took second after the chequered flag fell.
Marquez and Pedrosa both used subtly different variants of a new Honda aero fairing, which has a similar design to that of Yamaha with internal winglets.
The factory Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales took fifth and sixth, five and six tenths off the pace respectively.
Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci was seventh ahead of Avintia's Hector Barbera, who led for 13 minutes in the middle part of the session.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Zarco's Tech 3 teammate Jonas Folger completed the top 10.
Last year's Brno winner Cal Crutchlow was 12th, followed by Ducati title contender Andrea Dovizioso.
While the session featured no crashes, Andrea Iannone had an excursion into the gravel at Turn 10, but managed to rejoin with the help of marshals.
Local rider Karel Abraham took 20th on his Aspar Ducati.
Practice 1 results:
Pos. | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Yamaha | 2'05.201 | |
2 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 2'05.240 | 0.039 |
3 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 2'05.321 | 0.120 |
4 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 2'05.446 | 0.245 |
5 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 2'05.712 | 0.511 |
6 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha | 2'05.845 | 0.644 |
7 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 2'05.886 | 0.685 |
8 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 2'05.896 | 0.695 |
9 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 2'05.922 | 0.721 |
10 | 94 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha | 2'05.984 | 0.783 |
11 | 76 | Loris Baz | Ducati | 2'06.126 | 0.925 |
12 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 2'06.147 | 0.946 |
13 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 2'06.261 | 1.060 |
14 | 45 | Scott Redding | Ducati | 2'06.429 | 1.228 |
15 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 2'06.461 | 1.260 |
16 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 2'06.507 | 1.306 |
17 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Aprilia | 2'06.622 | 1.421 |
18 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | 2'06.691 | 1.490 |
19 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Honda | 2'07.013 | 1.812 |
20 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati | 2'07.078 | 1.877 |
21 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 2'07.157 | 1.956 |
22 | 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM | 2'07.613 | 2.412 |
23 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 2'07.801 | 2.600 |
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