MotoGP Valencia: Andrea Iannone fastest in FP1

Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone set the pace in Friday's opening MotoGP practice session in Valencia, as title rivals Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez finished fourth and fifth.

Iannone, whose Suzuki was sporting the fairing introduced at Motegi, took the lead with only three minutes left on the clock, and improved again next time around to end up with a 1m31.045s.

He was 0.312s clear of Marc VDS Honda rider Jack Miller, who led before Iannone.

The Australian took over from early leader Marquez with 10 minutes remaining, but ended up crashing at Turn 6 and missed the final five minutes of the session.

The Marc VDS rider still took second, less than a tenth ahead of KTM's Pol Espargaro.

Dovizioso beat Marquez by 0.035s for fourth, as the Spaniard failed to improve in the latter stages.

The Yamahas of Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco were sixth and seventh respectively, both seven tenths off the pace.

Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa made sure four of the five Hondas were in the top 10 with eighth and 10th, sandwiching KTM test rider Mika Kallio, on another wildcard outing.

Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro was 11th, one thousandth of a second quicker than Jorge Lorenzo on the third factory Desmosedici.

Aleix Espargaro was 16th on the best of the Aprilias on his return from injury.

Valentino Rossi had a quiet session in 18th, 1.493s off the pace, while Tech 3 stand-in Michael van der Mark propped up the times in 25th, more than three seconds adrift.

Alvaro Bautista was the only other rider to crash apart from Miller, the Aspar Ducati rider falling at Turn 2.

FP1 times

Pos	Rider	Team	Gap	Laps
1	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	1m31.045s	21
2	Jack Miller	MVDS Honda	0.312s	18
3	Pol Espargaro	KTM	0.393s	20
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	0.431s	19
5	Marc Marquez	Honda	0.466s	23
6	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	0.705s	24
7	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	0.763s	21
8	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	0.782s	19
9	Mika Kallio	KTM	0.834s	21
10	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	0.905s	22
11	Michele Pirro	Ducati	0.934s	19
12	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	0.935s	21
13	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	0.984s	18
14	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	1.459s	21
15	Tito Rabat	MVDS Honda	1.459s	26
16	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	1.471s	14
17	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	1.490s	20
18	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1.493s	23
19	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	1.578s	20
20	Alex Rins	Suzuki	1.752s	20
21	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	1.895s	19
22	Sam Lowes	Aprilia	1.940s	18
23	Bradley Smith	KTM	1.968s	20
24	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	2.138s	21
25	Michael van der Mark	Tech3 Yamaha	3.476s	24