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MotoGP Austin: Maverick Vinales fastest in first practice

Yamaha's championship leader Maverick Vinales led the way by more than half-a-second in first practice for the Austin MotoGP round

After winning his opening two races with Yamaha, in Qatar and Argentina, Vinales has set his sights on becoming the first rider other than Marc Marquez to win at the Circuit of the Americas.

Marquez led the way after the first block of running, with a 2m05.535s lap, with Honda stablemates Cal Crutchlow - before a crash at Turn 6 - and Dani Pedrosa having also spent time at the top.

The Spaniard was 0.574 seconds clear of Pedrosa until he was pipped by Vinales, who turned a 2m05.462s with 15 minutes to go.

That put Vinales 0.073s ahead of Marquez, and he then set a 2m04.923s the next time around to go 0.612s clear.

Marquez improved again before the session was out, but only by less than a tenth, and Vinales finished with an advantage of 0.577s.

Ducati had a quiet session until the final five minutes, when Andrea Dovizioso jumped up from 12th to third, and Jorge Lorenzo from 16th to sixth.

Vinales' team-mate Valentino Rossi also climbed up the order from outside the top 10 in the closing stages, on soft tyres, and finished eighth.

Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco was the best of the rookies in fourth, while Alvaro Bautista pipped Lorenzo after the chequered flag to take fifth on his 2016-model Aspar Ducati, the last of the riders within a second of Vinales.

Pedrosa wound up seventh ahead of Rossi, while Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro and Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10 and Crutchlow slipped to 11th despite rejoining on his second LCR Honda.

Andrea Iannone tried Suzuki's winglet-replacement front fairing but finished the session down in 16th place, 1.901s off the pace, four spots ahead of rookie team-mate Alex Rins.

Pol Espargaro was the best of the KTMs in 21st place, after saving a wild moment under braking at Turn 12 inside the final 10 minutes.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS:

Pos Rider Team Time Gap Laps
1 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 2m04.923s - 17
2 Marc Marquez Honda 2m05.500s 0.577s 19
3 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m05.604s 0.681s 15
4 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha 2m05.790s 0.867s 17
5 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati 2m05.833s 0.910s 15
6 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati 2m06.017s 1.094s 17
7 Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m06.109s 1.186s 16
8 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m06.292s 1.369s 15
9 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 2m06.411s 1.488s 14
10 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati 2m06.469s 1.546s 13
11 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 2m06.484s 1.561s 13
12 Jack Miller MVDS Honda 2m06.515s 1.592s 16
13 Scott Redding Pramac Ducati 2m06.646s 1.723s 14
14 Jonas Folger Tech3 Yamaha 2m06.692s 1.769s 15
15 Hector Barbera Avintia Ducati 2m06.786s 1.863s 15
16 Andrea Iannone Suzuki 2m06.824s 1.901s 14
17 Tito Rabat MVDS Honda 2m06.894s 1.971s 17
18 Loris Baz Avintia Ducati 2m07.127s 2.204s 17
19 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati 2m07.300s 2.377s 15
20 Alex Rins Suzuki 2m08.006s 3.083s 16
21 Pol Espargaro KTM 2m08.128s 3.205s 15
22 Sam Lowes Aprilia 2m08.292s 3.369s 16
23 Bradley Smith KTM 2m08.740s 3.817s 15


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