Marc Marquez sent out a warning to his rivals during first free practice for the Aragon MotoGP by blitzing the field by a huge 1.6secs out of the box.
Following his traditional theme of using the soft tyre early on – unlike rivals who wait to use more favourable track conditions in the final minutes – Marquez swept to the front with a 1m 46.869secs lap, a benchmark no-one could get close to.
Maverick Vinales was his ‘closest’ competition around the Motorland Aragon circuit, followed up by Yamaha counterpart Fabio Quartararo, the Misano podium winners picking up from where they left off from their podium success a week earlier despite two seconds covering the trio.
After a difficult round in Italy, Ducati bounced back to good form in FP1 at Aragon with Andrea Dovizioso turning in the fourth best time from Pramac counterpart Jack Miller, while Danilo Petrucci – still third in the standings despite a poor run of recent form – seventh best.
They were split by the top Suzuki of Joan Mir in sixth position, while Pol Espargaro scored the eighth quickest time on the best of the KTM contingent. Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the top ten.
Kallio makes MotoGP return, Lorenzo 4.3secs off Marquez
Outside the top ten, Miguel Oliveira turned in the 11th best time from top Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro, one of three RS-GP riders this weekend with the Spaniard and Andrea Iannone being joined by Briton Bradley Smith on a wild-card entry.
Elsewhere, Mika Kallio made his return to MotoGP on the KTM vacated by Johann Zarco, the Finn scoring the 19th best time of the 23 riders.
Meanwhile, Marquez’s blisteringly quick time framed Jorge Lorenzo’s struggles further in dead last, a massive 4.3secs off his session-topping team-mate.
