Valencia MotoGP: Marquez tops warm-up for title decider

Marc Marquez topped Sunday morning's warm-up session for MotoGP's Valencia title decider, cementing his status as favourite to clinch a fourth premier class title.

Polesitter Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

The 20-minute session was led by Suzuki rider Alex Rins at the halfway point, as the rookie took at the top of the times with a 1m31.821s before improving to a 1m31.448s.

That stood as the benchmark time until the final minutes, as second-placed Marquez made a succession of improvements - moving just under two tenths clear of Rins with a 1m31.269s.

The Repsol Honda rider improved marginally to a 1m31.263s next time round to end the session on top by 0.185s.

Andrea Iannone made it two Suzukis in the top three, 0.285s slower than Marquez and exactly a tenth off Rins.

Marquez's only rival for the crown, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, was fourth-fastest ahead of a race he has to win to have any hope of stealing the title.

Dani Pedrosa was fifth on the second factory Honda ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco and Mika Kallio on the best of the three KTMs.

Valentino Rossi was eighth-fastest, 0.621s off the pace, while works Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales' nightmare weekend continued as he crashed at Turn 10, ending up down in 19th.

Hector Barbera, in his last race weekend in MotoGP, was the session's only other faller.

Warm-up results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'31.263
2	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1'31.448	0.185
3	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1'31.548	0.285
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'31.599	0.336
5	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'31.613	0.350
6	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	1'31.697	0.434
7	36	Mika Kallio	KTM	1'31.827	0.564
8	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'31.884	0.621
9	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	1'31.894	0.631
10	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	1'31.984	0.721
11	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1'32.019	0.756
12	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	1'32.026	0.763
13	43	Jack Miller	Honda	1'32.043	0.780
14	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	1'32.079	0.816
15	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	1'32.195	0.932
16	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'32.217	0.954
17	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'32.263	1.000
18	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'32.267	1.004
19	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	1'32.383	1.120
20	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	1'32.456	1.193
21	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'32.562	1.299
22	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	1'32.568	1.305
23	22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1'32.630	1.367
24	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	1'32.728	1.465
25	60	Michael van der Mark	Yamaha	1'33.522	2.259