Marquez sat atop the timesheets virtually throughout the 45-minute session at the Circuit of the Americas, a track where the Spaniard is unbeaten, ending up setting a best time of 2m05.530s.

The Honda rider was more than a second clear of the field in the early stages, which were characterised by a dirty track surface, but Marquez's rivals were able to close in on their final runs.

The track has undergone a diamond-grinding process in recent weeks, in an effort to eliminate the track's notorious bumps, but this has left a lot of dusty residue on the surface.

Maverick Vinales was the first man to get within half a second of Marquez, but it was his Yamaha teammate Rossi who beat him to second spot, 0.396s off the pace with Vinales 0.727s down in the end.

Ducati's Jorge Lorenzo was the final rider to get within a second of Marquez in fourth place, ahead of LCR Honda's points leader Cal Crutchlow and the second works Desmosedici of Andrea Dovizioso.

Rookie Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) was a surprising seventh, ahead of lead Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone and Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha), who lost time early on when his bike stopped out on track in the opening minutes and then had a lap deleted for exceeding track limits.

Alex Rins (Suzuki) completed the top 10 ahead of Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Scott Redding, who ran second in the early stages.

An injured Dani Pedrosa struggled to 21st place having been declared fit to ride at COTA on Thursday, 3.581s off the pace of teammate Marquez at the head of the field.

Practice results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	2'05.530
2	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2'05.926	0.396
3	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	2'06.257	0.727
4	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	2'06.480	0.950
5	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	2'06.539	1.009
6	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	2'06.734	1.204
7	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	2'07.010	1.480
8	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	2'07.093	1.563
9	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	2'07.124	1.594
10	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	2'07.211	1.681
11	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	2'07.431	1.901
12	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	2'07.459	1.929
13	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	2'07.523	1.993
14	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	2'07.662	2.132
15	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	2'07.874	2.344
16	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	2'07.948	2.418
17	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	2'08.161	2.631
18	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	2'08.234	2.704
19	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	2'08.372	2.842
20	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	2'08.819	3.289
21	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	2'09.111	3.581
22	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	2'09.327	3.797
23	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	2'09.708	4.178
24	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	2'10.426	4.896