MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

After an absence of six years from the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in Argentina Marc Marquez has picked up where he left off. The Ducati Lenovo rider ended the first session of practice for the MotoGP class on top of the timesheets, and was fastest for a good part of practice. He was the first rider to get into the 1'38s, joined at the end by Johann Zarco.

Zarco was once again the best of the Hondas, the LCR rider just a couple of hundredths slower than Marquez. Alex Marquez ended FP1 in third, the Gresini Ducati rider three tenths slower than his brother. Franco Morbidelli was fourth quickest on the Pertamina VR46 Ducati, the Italian carrying his good form on to the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.

Marco Bezzecchi was the fastest Aprilia, six tenths behind Marc Marquez, and just ahead of Luca Marini on the factory Honda HRC Castrol bike. Jack Miller was the best Yamaha rider, the Pramac rider seventh quickest ahead of Maverick Viñales on the Tech3 KTM, and best of the Austrian bikes. Joan Mir in ninth made it three Hondas in the top ten, while Pedro Acosta rounded out the top ten.

Track conditions were far from ideal. The track had dried throughout FP1 for Moto2, the riders able to ride all session on slicks. But there were still damp patches, and the track is still quite dirty, so times were a little way off the lap record. Marc Marquez was 1.3 seconds off his own pole  record set in 2014 on the Honda.

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