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
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