Marquez snatches top spot on drying track in FP1

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 end 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-third 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 to leave 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, 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,…