MotoGP: Hernandez leads crash-strewn opening Misano session

Yonny Hernandez set the pace for Pramac Ducati in a crash-strewn first MotoGP practice session at Misano.

Heavy overnight rain, followed by steady morning drizzle, left the 2.6-mile circuit sodden and the tricky conditions caught out eight riders in the first 10 minutes of the session.

Of these, Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro were the most spectacular fallers as they crashed in sequence at Turn 1, with the former visibly struggling to put weight on his right foot as he made his way back to the Pramac garage.

Home hero Valentino Rossi also took a trip through the gravel when the front end of his Yamaha folded under braking at Turn 4, but he came away unharmed and resumed running on his second bike.

Hernandez, meanwhile, managed to tiptoe his way around the track and his mid-session time of 1m50.310s remained unbeatable until the end as the weather conditions deteriorated.

Points leader Marc Marquez finished 1.693 seconds off the Colombian's pace in second, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Stefan Bradl.

Ioda Racing rider Danilo Petrucci claimed fifth and was the last to go down when he had a nasty spill in the final three minutes of the session, but the Italian appeared to be unhurt from the incident.

Aleix Espargaro dusted himself from his early crash to finish sixth ahead of Iannone, who sat out the majority of session with an icepack on his ankle, while Pol Espargaro, Rossi and Dani Pedrosa rounded off the top 10.

Defending race winner Jorge Lorenzo had a muted session and finished 12th.