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.

Pos Rider             Bike                       Time        Gap    Laps 1. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                     1m49.753s           17 2. Marc Marquez      Honda                      1m49.761s  +0.008s  19 3. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                      1m49.948s  +0.195s  19 4. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda              1m50.219s  +0.466s  18 5. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                     1m50.499s  +0.746s  18 6. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                  1m50.535s  +0.782s  19 7. Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha              1m50.575s  +0.822s  18 8. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                     1m50.852s  +1.099s  16 9. Nicky Hayden      Ducati                     1m51.020s  +1.267s  1910. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha              1m51.263s  +1.510s  1811. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati              1m51.331s  +1.578s  1812. Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia              1m51.822s  +2.069s  1313. Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki       1m51.970s  +2.217s  1814. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki       1m52.026s  +2.273s  1815. Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki       1m52.122s  +2.369s  1816. Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW             1m52.168s  +2.415s  1917. Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki       1m52.321s  +2.568s  1918. Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati              1m52.529s  +2.776s  1719. Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia              1m54.092s  +4.339s  1220. Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia            1m54.537s  +4.784s  1421. Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia                1m54.804s  +5.051s  1622. Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda          1m54.843s  +5.090s  1923. Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW             1m56.110s  +6.357s  1724. Damien Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia                1m56.925s  +7.172s  16