Marco Bezzecchi edged out Marc Marquez by a tenth of a second to top practice for MotoGP’s San Marino Grand Prix on Friday.
The factory Aprilia rider set a best time of 1m30.144s in the closing stages of the session, beating the Ducati of reigning world champion Marc Marquez by just over a tenth of a second.
Gresini’s Alex Marquez ended up fractionally behind in third place, while VR46 duo Fabio di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli completed the top five in the presence of team boss Valentino Rossi.
At the start of the hour-long session, Alex Marquez and Bezzecchi traded the fastest times at the top of the leaderboard, with little separating Ducati and Aprilia around the 4.2km circuit.
Bezzecchi was the first to lower Marc Marquez’s FP1 benchmark with a 1m31.333s, before Alex Marquez set the first lap in the 1m30s bracket to establish himself at the front.
About 25 minutes into the session, Aprilia bolted on a fresh soft tyre on the rear of Bezzecchi’s bike, with the Italian immediately setting two rapid laps to reclaim the top spot – the fastest being a 1m30.829s.
The lap times began to fall in the final-third of the session, with di Giannantonio, Luca Marini and Pedro Acosta all taking turns at the top.
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
More quick laps followed in the last 10 minutes, with Bezzecchi briefly taking the top spot on the Aprilia, only for Marc Marquez to demote him with a 1m30.247s. Alex Marquez rejoined the fight soon after, pipping Bezzecchi by just 0.002s to move up to second place.
But Bezzecchi still had something left in reserve, posting a time of 1m30.144s just as the clock ticked down to zero, to end the day fastest of all.
This marked the third time in three weekends that he set the pace on Friday, having also been fastest on his comeback at Silverstone and again at Aragon a fortnight ago.
The Marquez brothers ended up second and third on the timesheets, with Marc ahead of Alex, while di Giannantonio and Morbidelli were less than a tenth adrift in fourth and fifth.
Meanwhile, Acosta recovered from a crash in FP1 to set the sixth-fastest time aboard the KTM, 0.344s off the pace set by Bezzecchi.
Honda’s Marini enjoyed a strong day on home turf, showing impressive pace in FP1 before going seventh-quickest in the afternoon.
Luca Marini, Honda HRC
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
He was followed by LCR’s Johann Zarco, while Pol Espargaro surprised the field by finishing ninth as a substitute for Maverick Vinales at Tech3 KTM.
Despite the late flurry of improvements, Aprilia’s Jorge Martin hung on to 10th place, beating Tech3’s Enea Bastianini by just 0.016s to secure a direct promotion into Q2.
Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez, however, wasn’t as lucky, as he slipped to 12th in the final stages of practice.
Fermin Aldeguer also finished off the pace in 13th for Gresini, while Francesco Bagnaia was once again the slowest Ducati in 19th.
Yamaha again struggled for performance, with Fabio Quartararo ending up a second off the pace on the best of the M1s in 16th.
MotoGP San Marino GP – Practice results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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