Lorenzo edges Marquez in Aragon MotoGP practice

Jorge Lorenzo snatched the top spot away from MotoGP title rival Marc Marquez in the final moments of the first Aragon practice session.

Having come to his latest home race chasing a third consecutive race win, Lorenzo kept the pressure on points leader Marquez with a 1m49.753s lap as the checkered flag fell on Friday morning. The Yamaha's time beat Honda man Marquez by just 0.008 second.

Earlier, Honda had filled the top four while Lorenzo made a slow start to the session. But once Lorenzo got going properly, he immediately surged to the front. The first man to break into the 1m49s, he was half a second quicker than the pack for a spell.

Marquez closed in and then inched ahead, establishing a 0.082sec advantage with a 1m49.761s lap.It looked unlikely that there would be any further changes, before Lorenzo dug deep on his last run and stole first place back.

Marquez's Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa improved his pace through the session and eventually got within 0.187s of the top spot in third.

Alvaro Bautista put his Gresini Honda fourth ahead of Valentino Rossi's Yamaha and the second satellite Honda of LCR rider Stefan Bradl.

Cal Crutchlow could only manage seventh, separated from Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Bradley Smith by Ducati pair Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden.

The in-demand Aleix Espargaro was the fastest CRT rider in 12th, despite a late gravel visit, although he was only 0.2sec faster than Hiroshi Aoyama, Claudio Corti and Hector Barbera.

Pramac's new recruit Yonny Hernandez was 18th in his first session on the prototype Ducati. Newcomer Luca Scassa and returnee Damian Cudlin were 20th and 24th for Cardion AB and Paul Bird, respectively.