Honda's Marc Marquez set the early pace as practice for the Grand Prix of the Americas got underway at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on Friday morning.
Marquez ended up just over two-tenths ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, whilst Ducati's Andrea Iannone was third.
The session got off to sunny start with several riders taking the opportunity to test new developments, such as Valentino Rossi who trialled a new fuel tank position to put more weight over the rear Michelin tyre.
Meanwhile Ducati's riders tried out new winglets which will likely come in handy around the Austin circuit due to its high number of corners and acceleration zones.
COTA master Marquez – who has won every single race held at the circuit having started from pole each time – led from the start and continually bettered his time to get down to a 2m04.953, making him the only rider to dip below the 2m04s mark.
Lorenzo finished second quickest with Iannone third, meaning three manufacturer teams made up the top three positions.
It wasn't all plain sailing for Iannone though, with the Italian suffering a slight technical problem towards the end of the session, the Italian’s bike smoking from the belly pan due to a small fire, a result of the fairing being too close to the exhaust. His team quickly dealt with the problem and he was able to return to track soon after.
Avintia's Hector Barbera and the second Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top five, with the latter just over a second slower than Marquez.
Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich), Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Yonny Hernandez (Aspar Team MotoGP), Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) made up the top ten.
0,0 Marc VDS rider Jack Miller suffered a fall at Turn 18. He was taken to the circuit medical centre for further checks on his feet during the session. There were no breaks found in Miller’s foot and he plans to head back out for FP2.
