Quartararo leads Marquez in Misano FP1

Full Misano MotoGP FP1 results

Fabio Quartararo has picked up where he left off at the Misano test by topping the opening practice session at the San Marino GP ahead of MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez.

The Petronas Yamaha rider topped the final day of the recent Misano test and continued that trend by taking top spot with a 1m 33.153s using medium front and rear tyres.

That put the MotoGP rookie 0.376s clear of Marquez on the Repsol Honda, with Maverick Vinales slotting into third place on the times for Monster Yamaha.

But all eyes were on the other side of the factory Yamaha garage as Valentino Rossi tried out the new twin exhaust, front brake disc cover and carbon swingarm during FP1. The new parts all debuted at the Misano test two weeks ago.

Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro was a fast starter with fourth place in the morning session ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro.

Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli slotted into seventh place ahead of Danilo Petrucci on the factory Ducati with Rossi on the experimental Yamaha in ninth place overall.

Tito Rabat enjoyed one of the best practice sessions of his season by surging up to 10^th place for Avintia Ducati but saw his FP1 prematurely cut short by crashing out at Turn 5 directly in front of Jorge Lorenzo who was touring on the outside of the corner.

Andrea Dovizioso claimed 11^th place on the factory Ducati bouncing back from his heavy first-corner fall at Silverstone three weeks ago.

Silverstone race-winner Alex Rins could only reach 12^th place for Suzuki ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, the second Suzuki of Joan Mir and the sister Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller who crashed in the final minute of FP1 at Turn 8.

Cal Crutchlow had a low-key FP1 down in 16^th place for LCR Honda directly ahead of team-mate Takaaki Nakagami.

Johann Zarco grabbed 18^th for Red Bull KTM ahead of Andrea Iannone, who suffered an early FP1 off at Turn 8, with Miguel Oliveira nursing a shoulder injury in 20^th place for Tech3.

Lorenzo remained off the pace down in 21^st place for Repsol Honda, 2.1s off the front-runners, as Karel Abraham and Hafizh Syahrin rounded out the timesheet.