Marquez on top of proceedings on day one at Misano

Marc Marquez is quickly becoming the main man to beat in only his first year in the MotoGP class and the Spaniard leads the way on day one at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli with the Repsol Honda rider finishing ahead of his teammate Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi getting up to speed early this weekend and ending day one in third in what is effectively his home race.

Marquez was immediately up to speed on his RC213V machine with his best time of 1m 34.200s a clear indicator of his intentions for Sunday’s GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini. Pedrosa set a best time of 1m 34.233s while Rossi’s best time of 1m 34.458s was good enough to sty ahead of his teammate Jorge Lorenzo who set a best lap time of 1m 34.495s while Power Electronics Aspar CRT team member Aleix Espargaro stunned the field by setting the fifth fastest time of 1m 34.732s.

Alvaro Bautista finished his first day with the Go&Fun Honda Gresini rider setting a best time of 1m 34.858s while Ignite Pramac Racing substitute rider Michele Pirro set the 7th best lap time of 1m 34.889s while Andrea Dovizioso finished in 8th today for the Ducati Team (1m 34.901s) with Stefan Bradl in 9th on the LCR Honda with his best lap of 1m 35.107s good enough to stay ahead of Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) who could improve on his best of 1m 35.208s.

Andrea Iannone finished day one in 11th on the Energy TI Pramac Racing machine with a best lap of 1m 35.218s while Nicky Hayden was next on the timing sheets with the Ducati Team man setting a best time of 1m 35.431s and Danilo Petrucci in 13th for the Came IodaRacing Project (1m 35.933s). Bradley Smith didn’t have a great first day on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 with the British rider setting the 14th best lap of 1m 36.004s with Claudio Corti in 15th for the NGM Mobile Forward Racing setting a best time of 1m 36.122s and one place ahead of teammate Colin Edwards (1m 36.181s). Hector Barbera finished in 17th place today despite his Avintia Blusens team using a pneumatic valve Kawasaki engine for the first time this weekend.

Barbera’s best time of 1m 36.253s was enough to stay ahead of Randy De Puniet on the Power Electronics Aspar machine (1m 36.283s) and Hiroshi Aoyama in 19th for the Avintia Blusens team with a best lap of 1m 36.646s. Karel Abraham ended day one in 20th on the Cardion AB Motoracing entry and the Czech Republic rider suffered a small crash in the afternoon session. Finishing in 21st today was Michael Laverty on the Paul Bird Motorsport machine with a best lap of 1m 37.334s while Yonny Hernandez set the 22nd best lap of 1m 37.368s. Bryan Staring ended day one in 23rd for the Go&Fun Honda Gresini team (1m 37.722s) and Lukas Pesek in 24th for the Came IodaRacing team with a best time of 1m 38.962s.

Speaking afterwards Marquez revealed he was happy with his progress saying, “I am happy with how things went today, and how we worked. I felt pretty good from the start and found some good reference points; there's only a few places, like on the fast corner, where I still need to make some improvements in order to go faster. I'm running slightly wide onto the astroturf at that point. I hope that we can rectify this tomorrow, keep working well and get in even better shape for the race.”

Pedrosa is aiming to improve his feeling in the rear and revealed the low levels of grip on the Misano track didn’t help proceedings. He said, “In general, today we managed to have two good practice sessions. The only problem is that we are lacking some grip in the rear. It was hard to find the necessary traction during the sessions and we hope to be able to improve this tomorrow. The track condition didn't help us today either, as the asphalt wasn't very grippy. Despite all this, tomorrow we will be looking for a good qualifying session - which is the important thing.”

Speaking about his first impressions with the new seamless gearbox that Yamaha is using this weekend Rossi said, “It’s always special and a great feeling to ride here. Today was a good Friday for me; my performance was not so bad. This morning I was already quite fast but especially this afternoon my pace was very good. I was fast from the beginning to the end of the practice and we are very close to the front. Yamaha has made a fantastic job with the gearbox; it is a great help for the riders. It’s not a big advantage with lap time but the bike becomes a lot easier to ride, more stable in acceleration and less wheelie. You can concentrate more on riding, it is less demanding so I think for the race it will be a big help.”