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MotoGP Austria: Dovizioso and Lorenzo lead Ducati 1-2-3 in FP1

Andrea Dovizioso led an all-Ducati top three in the first practice session for MotoGP's Austrian Grand Prix, while Valentino Rossi had a mechanical drama on his Yamaha

With a risk of rain for both FP2 on Friday afternoon and FP3 on Saturday morning, the field focused setting a fast lap in the early running.

The three Ducati GP18s controlled proceedings early-on with Danilo Petrucci, Jorge Lorenzo and Dovizioso all taking turns in first place.

But it was Marc Marquez who led the way with a 1m24.411s before a mid-session lull, where the Honda rider was nearly four tenths quicker than Dovizioso.

The Italian started a run 25 minutes into the session where he improved his own best time, and consequently closed the gap to Marquez on a couple occasions before he eventually took over the lead with a 1m24.295s.

The top two remained unchanged until the final minutes when Dovizioso improved by nearly two tenths, only to be narrowly outpaced by Lorenzo.

But as the chequered flag fell, Dovizioso lowered the benchmark even further and ended up topping the session with a 1m23.830s.

Lorenzo was 0.215 seconds behind in second with Petrucci completing the top three nearly half a second off the pace.

Marquez was best of the rest in fourth, 0.581s slower than Dovizioso, with Suzuki's Andrea Iannone taking fifth.

Rossi's bike slowed at the end of the main straight less than 10 minutes into the session, with his bike reportedly suffering a broken rear sprocket.

He was able to continue soon afterwards but ended up finishing the session down in 11th.

Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow were sixth and seventh respectively, with Avintia's Tito Rabat bringing a fourth Ducati into the top 10 in eighth.

Yamaha had a low-key session with Johann Zarco ninth on the Tech3 bike, closely followed by factory pair Maverick Vinales and Rossi, both more than a second off the pace.

Aleix Espargaro was the top Aprilia rider in 12th as the sole KTM entrant Bradley Smith took 15th.

FP1 times

Pos Rider Team Bike Time Gap Laps
1 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m23.830s - 22
2 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m24.045s 0.215s 19
3 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m24.320s 0.490s 22
4 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m24.411s 0.581s 22
5 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m24.436s 0.606s 23
6 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m24.474s 0.644s 23
7 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m24.491s 0.661s 22
8 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m24.676s 0.846s 25
9 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m24.767s 0.937s 22
10 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m24.835s 1.005s 19
11 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m24.884s 1.054s 20
12 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m24.904s 1.074s 22
13 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m24.938s 1.108s 23
14 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m24.939s 1.109s 22
15 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m24.973s 1.143s 23
16 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m25.011s 1.181s 23
17 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1m25.107s 1.277s 24
18 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m25.184s 1.354s 21
19 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1m25.354s 1.524s 21
20 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m25.541s 1.711s 20
21 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m25.594s 1.764s 21
22 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m25.752s 1.922s 21
23 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 1m25.979s 2.149s 23

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