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MotoGP Portuguese GP: Marquez tops opening practice in dusty conditions

Heavy overnight rain left the Portuguese circuit covered in sand and dust for the start of Friday’s track action, with the first Moto3 practiced red-flagged and then canned due to the conditions.

Things improved enough for the first Moto2 session to run to schedule, with the opening 45-minute practice for the MotoGP class following.

However, lap times were over three seconds off the lap record from last year, leading to a largely unrepresentative session.

Marquez, two weeks on from a solid Ducati debut, led the times after firing in a 1m40.484s on his final flying lap on his Gresini-run GP23.

The eight-time grand prix world champion sat atop the times at various points of FP1 as he continues his adaptation to the Ducati, with Marquez admitting coming into this weekend that he would be “starting from zero” again.

He led the way by 0.165 seconds from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, who is carrying a mild illness into the Portuguese GP.

Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

The factory KTM duo of Brad Binder and Jack Miller followed in third and fourth, while Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli completed the top five.

Miller set the initial pace in the session on his factory RC16 with a 1m46.870s, which was almost 10s off the pole time from last season at the Algarve International Circuit.

As the riders swept the dust off the racing line, lap times would fall, with top spot changing hands frequently as a result.

Marquez’s 1m40.484s would end up as the fastest effort, with 1m37.226s the reference pole time from last year set by the Spaniard on a Honda.

Binder looked like he would end FP1 fastest of all having gone top in the final two minutes with a 1m40.689s, but was shuffled down by Marquez and Vinales.

Morbidelli completed the most laps of any rider at 21 at the circuit he suffered a nasty accident during a training session which led to the concussion that ruled him out of pre-season testing.

He headed Pramac team-mate Jorge Martin by 0.045s, with Alex Rins seventh for Yamaha from Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira, the sister Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez and the factory Honda of Joan Mir.

Honda comes to Portugal with some new items to try following a private test earlier this week at Jerez with Luca Marini, as well as from recent running by Stefan Bradl at the Algarve circuit.

Championship leader Francesco Bagnaia was 13th on his factory Ducati, while Pedro Acosta was 15th on his Tech3 GasGas.

MotoGP Portuguese GP - FP1 results:

   
1
 - 
5
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati 18

1'40.484

  167.811  
2 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 17

+0.165

1'40.649

0.165 167.536  
3 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 22

+0.205

1'40.689

0.040 167.470  
4 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 17

+0.356

1'40.840

0.151 167.219  
5 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati 21

+0.377

1'40.861

0.021 167.184  
6 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 19

+0.422

1'40.906

0.045 167.109  
7 Spain A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42 Yamaha 19

+0.450

1'40.934

0.028 167.063  
8 Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia 18

+0.623

1'41.107

0.173 166.777  
9 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 16

+0.635

1'41.119

0.012 166.757  
10 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 15

+0.706

1'41.190

0.071 166.640  
11 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 20

+0.758

1'41.242

0.052 166.555  
12 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati 16

+0.793

1'41.277

0.035 166.497  
13 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 19

+0.805

1'41.289

0.012 166.478  
14 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 20

+1.047

1'41.531

0.242 166.081  
15 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM 19

+1.122

1'41.606

0.075 165.958  
16 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda 17

+1.188

1'41.672

0.066 165.850  
17 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia 18

+1.203

1'41.687

0.015 165.826  
18 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 17

+1.231

1'41.715

0.028 165.780  
19 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 18

+1.244

1'41.728

0.013 165.759  
20 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 16

+1.300

1'41.784

0.056 165.668  
21 Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda 17

+1.493

1'41.977

0.193 165.354  
22 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 17

+1.598

1'42.082

0.105 165.184  
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