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Emilia Romagna MotoGP: Marquez leads Martin in damp/dry first practice

Gresini star Marc Marquez topped the opening practice session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, leading MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin.

Two rapid laps from Marquez right at the death of FP1 allowed the Spanish rider to assume the top spot at Misano, where he won two weeks ago, beating the Pramac Ducati of Martin by just 0.063s.

Damp conditions led to a slow start to the day's proceedings, with only three riders completing timed laps in the first-thirds of the 45-minute session.

KTM's Brad Binder was the first rider to venture out on track and steadily lowered his lap times as the conditions improved, going from a 1m45.279s at the beginning of practice to 1m33.843s with 25 minutes left on the clock.

By this time, more riders felt comfortable leaving the pits, with title protagonists Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin among those heading out on a rapidly drying track.

But it wasn't until almost 30 minutes into the session that Binder was deposed from the top spot, with Aprilia's Maverick Vinales setting an impressive time of 1m33.331s to edge out the KTM ace by half a second.

Yamaha star Fabio Quartararo soon demoted Binder to third, before snatching first place from Vinales on a 1m33.013s

A flurry of quick laps followed in the final 10 minutes, with Quartararo first to break the 1m33s barrier, before Tech3 GasGas's Pedro Acosta found even more time on a 1m32.750s to hit the front.

Martin was the next rider to take the top spot with a 1m32.260s and had appeared to cement his position by improving to 1m32.145s with just four minutes left in the session.

However, Marquez had other ideas and dethroned his countryman with just a minute to go in the session, and then improved to a 1m32.082s even when it became clear that no rider would be able to beat his new benchmark.

Behind Marquez and Martin, third place went to the second Pramac Ducati of Franco Morbidelli, the Italian ending up almost two tenths down after posting a time of 1m32.268s.

Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia was next up in fourth on a 1m32.373s, while Vinales was the best non-Ducati rider in fifth, finishing four tenths off the top spot.

Alex Marquez guided the second Gresini GP23 to sixth ahead of KTM riders Acosta and Binder, while Quartararo slipped to ninth after leading the session early on.

The top 10 was completed by Jack Miller on the factory KTM bike, while Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) were the last of the riders to lap within a second of Marquez.

The lead Honda bike was of Luca Marini in 17th place, the Italian finishing 1.3s down on the rider he replaced at HRC, Marquez.

   
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Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati 10

1'32.082

  165.217  
2 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 11

+0.063

1'32.145

0.063 165.104  
3 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati 10

+0.186

1'32.268

0.123 164.884  
4 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 12

+0.291

1'32.373

0.105 164.697  
5 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 15

+0.409

1'32.491

0.118 164.487  
6 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 10

+0.464

1'32.546

0.055 164.389  
7 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM 12

+0.536

1'32.618

0.072 164.261  
8 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 19

+0.572

1'32.654

0.036 164.197  
9 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 15

+0.659

1'32.741

0.087 164.043  
10 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 16

+0.666

1'32.748

0.007 164.031  
11 Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia 13

+0.741

1'32.823

0.075 163.899  
12 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 11

+0.743

1'32.825

0.002 163.895  
13 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 12

+0.828

1'32.910

0.085 163.745  
14 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia 12

+1.051

1'33.133

0.223 163.353  
15 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 15

+1.155

1'33.237

0.104 163.171  
16 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati 9

+1.249

1'33.331

0.094 163.006  
17 Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda 11

+1.308

1'33.390

0.059 162.903  
18 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda 10

+1.348

1'33.430

0.040 162.834  
19 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 10

+1.468

1'33.550

0.120 162.625  
20 Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 12

+1.685

1'33.767

0.217 162.248  
21 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 14

+1.796

1'33.878

0.111 162.057  
22 Spain A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42 Yamaha 3

+5.752

1'37.834

3.956 155.504  
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