Barcelona MotoGP: Valentino Rossi fastest in first practice

Yamaha factory rider Valentino Rossi topped the first practice of MotoGP's Barcelona round, as long-time leader Marc Marquez was demoted right at the end.

Honda's Marquez had an early pace advantage compared to his rivals as he took the lead with his first flyer, and maintained a significant gap with a couple of improvements.

He led by nearly a second with his 1m39.882s, which remained the benchmark until the final minute of the session.

Mugello winner Jorge Lorenzo, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Iannone and Rossi all took turns in second, closing the gap to Marquez.

Rossi eventually surpassed Marquez as he improved with only a few seconds left on the clock with a 1m39.456s, using fresh soft tyres on the front and rear of his YZR-M1.

Marquez did not improve at the end and was also demoted by Andrea Dovizioso and Lorenzo, the Ducati factory team-mates separated by one thousandth of a second in second and third.

Johann Zarco was half a tenth slower than Marquez in fifth, followed by fellow Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales.

Crutchlow ended up seventh ahead of Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat and Iannone, whose progress was halted by a crash at the Turn 10 hairpin.

Iannone was the first rider to fall but other riders followed suit late on with Franco Morbidelli and Karel Abraham both crashing at the second part of the Turn 1/2 complex.

Jack Miller also had an incident as he tried to pass Bradley Smith into the tight downhill Turn 5 left-hander but ended up touching the Briton's KTM and falling - leaving Miller visibly frustrated with Smith after the incident.

Miller ended the session 10th ahead of Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro and Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

Wildcard Mika Kallio was the fastest KTM in 15th, beating Pol Espargaro, who was 18th, by less than a tenth.

Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli ended the session 24th, only ahead of Tom Luthi and Abraham.

FP1 times

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.456s	-	19
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m39.803s	0.347s	18
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	1m39.804s	0.348s	18
4	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m39.882s	0.426s	21
5	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m39.933s	0.477s	19
6	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m40.114s	0.658s	21
7	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m40.159s	0.703s	18
8	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m40.264s	0.808s	20
9	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m40.274s	0.818s	20
10	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m40.310s	0.854s	17
11	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m40.388s	0.932s	17
12	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m40.454s	0.998s	19
13	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	1m40.504s	1.048s	18
14	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m40.795s	1.339s	21
15	Mika Kallio	KTM	KTM	1m40.882s	1.426s	20
16	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m40.896s	1.440s	19
17	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m40.899s	1.443s	20
18	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m40.945s	1.489s	18
19	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m40.957s	1.501s	19
20	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m41.001s	1.545s	20
21	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m41.038s	1.582s	20
22	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	1m41.194s	1.738s	19
23	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m41.350s	1.894s	14
24	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m41.436s	1.980s	17
25	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	1m41.438s	1.982s	21
26	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	1m42.159s	2.703s	15