Dovizioso leads tight Czech GP MotoGP FP1 - autosport.com

Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso topped MotoGP Czech Grand Prix FP1, but Marc Marquez, Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira all finished less than a tenth of a second behind.

Marquez was the leader for nearly all the session, the Honda rider and championship leader having set a time of 1m56.948 early on to go close to half a second clear of the field.

The rest of the field could close the gap only in the last couple of minutes, with Yamaha's Vinales coming up just short in second as he demoted Suzuki test rider Sylvain Guintoli with a 1m56.948s.

Last year's Brno race winner Dovizioso set the timing screens alight on his final attempt and produced a 1m56.919s to finally depose Marquez from top spot by the slender margin of 0.029s.

Vinales was a close third, while Tech 3 KTM rider Oliveira grabbed an impressive fourth, just 0.099s slower than pacesetter Dovizioso.

Suzuki wildcard Guintoli was shuffled back to a still-impressive fifth in just his second appearance of the year, although he was nearly half a second off the pace.

Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller was second for most of the session, but didn't improve in the latter stages and dropped to sixth, followed by Oliveira's Tech 3 teammate Hafizh Syahrin.

The top 10 was completed by Franco Morbidelli (Petronas SRT Yamaha), Suzuki's Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi on the Yamaha.

Francesco Bagnaia was the only rider to crash, the Pramac rider going down at Turn 13 late on. He ended up 12th at the chequered flag ahead of Danilo Petrucci on the second of the works Ducati.

Fabio Quartararo on the sister SRT bike was a lowly 18th, while Jorge Lorenzo's replacement at Honda Stefan Bradl and Johann Zarco (KTM) rounded out the order in 22nd and 23rd.

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m56.919s	-	17
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m56.948s	0.029s	18
3	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m56.982s	0.063s	18
4	Miguel Oliveira	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m57.018s	0.099s	17
5	Sylvain Guintoli	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m57.371s	0.452s	16
6	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m57.385s	0.466s	15
7	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m57.726s	0.807s	16
8	Franco Morbidelli	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	1m57.763s	0.844s	17
9	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m57.809s	0.890s	18
10	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m57.827s	0.908s	18
11	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	1m57.834s	0.915s	14
12	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	1m57.950s	1.031s	14
13	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	Ducati	1m57.961s	1.042s	17
14	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m58.029s	1.110s	17
15	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	1m58.033s	1.114s	16
16	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m58.052s	1.133s	14
17	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1m58.101s	1.182s	16
18	Fabio Quartararo	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	1m58.246s	1.327s	19
19	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m58.287s	1.368s	16
20	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	Aprilia	1m58.371s	1.452s	16
21	Joan Mir	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m58.500s	1.581s	15
22	Stefan Bradl	Honda	Honda	1m58.968s	2.049s	17
23	Johann Zarco	KTM	KTM	1m59.028s	2.109s	16