MotoGP™ championship leader Marc Marquez set the pace in Friday morning’s opening practice session for the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini. The 20-year-old led Repsol Honda Team colleague Dani Pedrosa, while Yamaha Factory Racing filled positions three and four with new seamless transmission on-board.

Having won the Moto2™ race at Misano last year, Marquez threw down the Friday morning gauntlet with a best lap time of 1’34.476. As the sun shone, Pedrosa recovered from early bike vibrations to move to within a quarter of a second of Marquez, while Jorge Lorenzo pipped Valentino Rossi by 76 thousandths; incidentally, Misano marks a critical weekend for the Yamaha pairing as they hope their seamless system will move them closer to the pace-setting Hondas.

At the start of this penultimate European race weekend prior to the Asian triple-header, 2012 Misano podium finisher Alvaro Bautista was fifth for GO&FUN Honda Gresini, ahead of LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl and Ducati Team pairing Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso. Michele Pirro was ninth for Ignite Pramac Racing, while Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro placed his CRT machine inside the top ten, ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow.

Second free practice will be underway from 2:05pm local time (GMT +2).

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