Laguna Seca MotoGP: Marc Marquez fastest in practice on first day
Marc Marquez belied his lack of Laguna Seca circuit knowledge to go fastest in Friday MotoGP practice at the Californian track
With Laguna the only MotoGP venue that feeder categories Moto2 and Moto3 do not visit, Marquez had not tried the venue until Friday practice.
But that did not stop him taking third in the morning, and in practice two he took control halfway through the session.
The factory Honda rider ended up on a 1m22.040s, 0.229 seconds ahead of nearest rival Stefan Bradl on the LCR Honda.
Just 0.077s covered Bradl, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi's Yamaha in second to fourth places.
Morning pacesetter Cal Crutchlow was back in fifth this time.
The still-recovering Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa both completed over 20 laps.
But while Lorenzo got up to sixth place, 0.4s off the pace and within 0.010s of Crutchlow, Pedrosa was back in 11th position, a second adrift.
Aleix Espargaro remained on top in CRT in seventh overall, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, Nicky Hayden and Bradley Smith's prototype bikes.
The session was delayed by 20 minutes when American wildcard Blake Young had a huge high-side at Turn 5.
While Young walked away from the violent tumble, his APR-Kawasaki bounced destructively down the track, dropping fluid in the process and forcing the long stoppage.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Marc Marquez Honda 1m22.040s 2. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m22.269s +0.229s 3. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m22.284s +0.244s 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m22.346s +0.306s 5. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m22.457s +0.417s 6. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m22.467s +0.427s 7. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m22.531s +0.491s 8. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m22.539s +0.499s 9. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m22.733s +0.693s 10. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m22.767s +0.727s 11. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m23.129s +1.089s 12. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m23.158s +1.118s 13. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m23.437s +1.397s 14. Alex de Angelis Pramac Ducati 1m23.973s +1.933s 15. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m24.047s +2.007s 16. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m24.180s +2.140s 17. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m24.410s +2.370s 18. Karel Abraham Cardion Aprilia 1m24.421s +2.381s 19. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m24.473s +2.433s 20. Yonny Hernandez PBM Aprilia 1m24.555s +2.515s 21. Michael Laverty PBM-Aprilia 1m24.727s +2.687s 22. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 1m25.345s +3.305s 23. Blake Young Attack APR-Kawasaki 1m25.764s +3.724s 24. Lukas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m27.173s +5.133s
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