Argentina MotoGP: Dovizioso edges Marquez in opening practice

On a dirty Termas de Rio Hondo track, times rapidly improved over the course of the session as the riders laid their rubber down, albeit times remained around four seconds off lap record pace by the finish.

Marc VDS Honda rider Jack Miler took advantage of this to spend a significant amount of time atop the timesheets, the Australian becoming the first man to dip below the 1m45s mark.

Miller had worked his way down to a 1m42.244s before Marquez went quickest on a 1m43.778s, with Dovizioso shortly slotting into second on a 1m44.194s.

It looked as if that time would be enough for Marquez to remain on top, but Dovizioso managed to go even quicker on his very last flying lap to take the top spot with a best effort of 1m43.684s.

Marquez was relegated to second, ahead of Aspar Ducati rider Yonny Hernandez, another man to set his best time after the chequered flag had fallen - the Colombian recording a 1m44.027s.

That demoted the Suzukis of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro to fourth and fifth, ahead of Valentino Rossi on the best of the factory Yamahas in sixth - the Italian also saving his best lap for last to go within half a second of Dovizioso.

Dani Pedrosa on the second factory Honda was seventh, ahead of Miller, Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati).

Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo had a quiet session on the second works Yamaha, finishing just over a second off the pace in 12th, five places ahead of the only faller in an otherwise incident-free session: Pol Espargaro, who crashed at Turn 7 late on.

Danilo Petrucci's replacement at Pramac Ducati, Michele Pirro, did not set a time.

Practice results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	1:43.684		14
2	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	1:43.778	+0.094	16
3	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Racing Team	1:44.027	+0.343	16
4	Maverick Vinales	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	1:44.113	+0.429	17
5	Aleix Espargaro	Team Suzuki ECSTAR	1:44.128	+0.444	16
6	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha Factory Racing	1:44.181	+0.497	13
7	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	1:44.231	+0.547	14
8	Jack Miller	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	1:44.244	+0.560	20
9	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	1:44.275	+0.591	16
10	Scott Redding	Octo Pramac Yakhnich	1:44.293	+0.609	19
11	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	1:44.455	+0.771	17
12	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	1:44.742	+1.058	13
13	Loris Baz	Avintia Racing	1:45.080	+1.396	18
14	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Racing Team	1:45.294	+1.610	15
15	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1:45.447	+1.763	17
16	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	1:45.519	+1.835	18
17	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	1:45.590	+1.906	18
18	Andrea Iannone	Ducati Team	1:45.792	+2.108	17
19	Tito Rabat	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	1:45.876	+2.192	22
20	Cal Crutchlow	Team LCR	1:46.086	+2.402	11