Practice report

Marquez leads Honda 1-2 in opening practice

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez set the pace in the opening practice session for the Catalan Grand Prix at the Barcelona circuit.

The Spanish rider, aiming to bounce back this weekend after his crash in the previous race at Mugello, set a fastest time of 1:41.808 near the end of the session to outpace Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa by two tenths of a second.

Suzuki rider Aleix Espargaro finished third ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, the winner of the last three races.

Maverick Vinales completed a promising start for Suzuki with the fifth quickest time.

Championship leader Valentino Rossi finished down in eighth position.

Riders made the most of the session to prepare for Sunday's race, with rain forecast for tomorrow.

Aleix Espargaro was the early pace-setter of a session that started under a cloudy sky and which saw Andrea Iannone crash his Ducati early on when he went off the track at Turn 10.

The Italian's bike was not damaged, however, and he managed to return to the pits after being pushed back onto the track by the marshals.

Espargaro remained on top of the times until the final minutes when, with four to go, Pedrosa jumped to the top with a lap of 1:42.018.

Marquez took P1 with less than two minutes left despite a mistake on his flying lap, the world champion setting a new benchmark of 1:41.808.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'41.808		17
2	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	1'42.018	0.210	21
3	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1'42.183	0.375	16
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'42.458	0.650	17
5	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	1'42.555	0.747	18
6	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	1'42.594	0.786	17
7	Nicky Hayden	Honda	1'42.623	0.815	19
8	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'42.938	1.130	19
9	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'42.945	1.137	18
10	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'42.957	1.149	18
11	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'42.981	1.173	18
12	Scott Redding	Honda	1'43.002	1.194	23
13	Karel Abraham	Honda	1'43.008	1.200	18
14	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	1'43.116	1.308	18
15	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'43.378	1.570	21
16	Stefan Bradl	Yamaha Forward	1'43.536	1.728	19
17	Héctor Barbera	Ducati	1'44.059	2.251	14
18	Eugene Laverty	Honda	1'44.062	2.254	21
19	Jack Miller	Honda	1'44.357	2.549	19
20	Loris Baz	Yamaha Forward	1'44.594	2.786	16
21	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'44.603	2.795	17
22	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1'44.676	2.868	19
23	Mike Di Meglio	Ducati	1'44.768	2.960	15
24	Alex de Angelis	ART/Aprilia	1'44.865	3.057	17
25	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	1'45.270	3.462	17