Marquez, Lorenzo 1-2 in Catalunya practices

Reigning Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) topped FP1 at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, and the Spaniard kept his throne in the afternoon to go quickest in a dry FP2 and head the combined timesheets on Day 1 by four tenths.

The man on the chase was compatriot Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team), who shot up into P2 in the afternoon in a strong showing on his race debut at the venue for Ducati. Rookie Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) impressed to lock out the top three, and ended the day only 0.044 ahead of Mugello winner Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) in fourth.

• Combined practice times

Bad weather in the morning saw rain ahead of track action leave the circuit in need of full wets, before FP1 was completed on slicks and the sun stayed out to give the field a fully dry FP2.

“Today I felt pretty good with the bike, as we already had a good base setup from the test we did here two weeks ago," Marquez said. "In the afternoon we tried a few changes on the bike during our second run, but ultimately we preferred to go back to the setup from the test. We fit a new tire and my last run was pretty good. We look forward to trying the hard Michelin rear tire tomorrow, to understand what’s best for the race because it should be quite a bit warmer and therefore tough on tires.

"We’ll try to keep the same level from today. The new track layout is different; the old one was more ‘natural,’ but ultimately it’s the same track and still enjoyable.”

Behind the top four, Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) was another Italian keeping his momentum from his hometown heroics going, completing the fastest five on Friday ahead of another impressive showing from local rider Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) in sixth. Rabat graduated to Q2 for the first time in Mugello, and took P11 in the race.

Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took P7, just ahead of another home hero in the form of three-time World Champion Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) in eighth. Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Team) was ninth quickest on combined timesheets, and escaped unharmed from a slow crash in the final sector in FP2.

Nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) completed the top 10 on Day 1 at the circuit on which he won last season – his most recent victory – as teammate and Championship leader Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) ended Friday in sixteenth. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) was another high profile name further down the timesheets, taking P19 after a crash in FP2.

Hector Barbera (Reale Avintia Racing) was P11, ahead of Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Racing), Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) and Loris Baz (Reale Avintia Racing).

FP3 decides the top ten initial graduates to Q2 on Saturday morning, before qualifying gets underway with Q1 from 14:10 (GMT +2) on Day 2.