MotoGP Portuguese GP: Marquez tops opening practice in dusty ...

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.