Aragon MotoGP: Marquez leads Rossi in first practice

Marquez led for almost the entirety of the session, having established a massive gap from the get go - and while other riders eventually closed in on the time, the Honda man would not be dethroned.

Through the first set of timed laps, Marquez quickly stormed to the front, becoming the first rider to dip below 1m50s with a 1m49.748s lap, and then going almost six tenths quicker than that with a 1m49.172s.

That put Marquez well out of reach for the rest of the pack, with fellow Honda rider Cal Crutchlow occupying second place with a time 0.670s off early on.

Jorge Lorenzo, the winner of the two most recent Aragon Grands Prix, aborted his first run after having a moment and running wide at Turn 16, with Yamaha reporting that a bad tyre was likely behind the issue.

He rejoined shortly thereafter and shot up to second place, but was still more than half a second down on Marquez.

The championship leader upped the pace once again just past halfway, Marquez posting a 1m48.830s, which, at that point, left everyone but Lorenzo and Tech 3 rider Pol Espargaro more than a second adrift.

That remained until the closing stages of the session, when Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso moved to 0.348s off Marquez and then had his time matched exactly by Suzuki's Maverick Vinales.

Finally, at the chequered flag, it was Rossi's turn to take the runner-up spot - and the Italian occupied it for good, ending up 0.186s off the pace.

Behind Vinales and Dovizioso was Lorenzo, who did not improve on his final run, and Andrea Iannone, who was reportedly in a serious deal of pain due to his back injury.

Danilo Petrucci, Aleix Espargaro, Pol Espargaro and Crutchlow made up the top 10 as the final four riders within a second of Marquez.

Misano race winner Dani Pedrosa was only 11th, 1.2s off his teammate. Of the replacement riders, Tech 3's Alex Lowes took 17th, while Nicky Hayden scored 20th, three seconds off Marquez's lap.

Yonny Hernandez and Tito Rabat were the two fallers of the session, Hernandez crashing before a time had been set on the board at Turn 16, and Rabat losing the front end in the dying seconds of the session at Turn 2.

Aleix Espargaro also had an issue at Turn 2, going straight on, but managed to get the bike stopped in the gravel just before arriving at the barriers.

Free practice 1 results

Pos.	#	Driver	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	17	1'48.830
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	19	1'49.016	0.186
3	25	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	16	1'49.178	0.348
4	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	16	1'49.178	0.348
5	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	16	1'49.573	0.743
6	29	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	17	1'49.601	0.771
7	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	19	1'49.719	0.889
8	41	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	16	1'49.731	0.901
9	44	Pol Espargaro	Yamaha	19	1'49.738	0.908
10	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	17	1'49.756	0.926
11	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	17	1'49.993	1.163
12	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	18	1'50.113	1.283
13	6	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	18	1'50.368	1.538
14	8	Hector Barbera	Ducati	17	1'50.714	1.884
15	53	Tito Rabat	Honda	20	1'50.816	1.986
16	50	Eugene Laverty	Ducati	15	1'50.958	2.128
17	22	Alex Lowes	Yamaha	19	1'51.103	2.273
18	19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	18	1'51.139	2.309
19	68	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	15	1'51.388	2.558
20	69	Nicky Hayden	Honda	17	1'51.873	3.043
21	76	Loris Baz	Ducati	15	1'52.680	3.850