Marc Marquez led the day for Honda at the end of the opening day of running for the Grand Prix of the Americas, the Spaniard heading the times in both wet and dry conditions.
Marquez ended the wet opening practice session at the Circuit of the Americas quickest ahead of Ducati’s Jack Miller, the six-time premier class champion continuing to possess the form that has taken him to victory at the American venue on six occasions in seven starts as he led the dry second session too.
Miller shadowed the Honda ace as he again went second quickest in the afternoon session, the Aussie lapping just 0.015s short of topping Marquez.
Fabio Quartararo ended Friday third overall just over two-tenths adrift of Marquez, the series leader having struggled to a lowly 15th-albeit fastest Yamaha-in FP1.
Honda enjoyed a strong overall opening day of running at COTA as Pol Espargaro and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami completed the top five in the combined table, with Quartararo’s closest title rival Francesco Bagnaia looking to make it three wins in a row in sixth overall.
Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco ensured all four factory-spec Ducati’s featured within the top eight on the leaderboard, with defending race winner from 2019 Alex Rins ending Friday ninth for Suzuki ahead of San Marino GP rostrum finisher Enea Bastianini.
Brad Binder was the fastest KTM representative in 11th overall, though team-mate Miguel Oliveira did at least end FP1 in fourth before slipping back to 18th in the drier conditions that greeted the premier class pilots in second practice.
Andrea Dovizioso continued to make good progress with his new Yamaha machine as he ended up an encouraging 14th-the second quickest M1 to boot-as he lapped just a second shy of Marquez’s benchmark and half-a-second up on Petronas SRT team-mate Valentino Rossi.
Reigning series champion Joan Mir was only 13th just ahead of the Italian, while Franco Morbidelli continued to try and regain his race fitness following his three month layoff in 15th.
Aleix Espargaro will be looking for gains in Saturday’s FP3 test after failing to post a representative time on Friday, the Aprilia man 19th as he flies solo for the Italian marque this weekend following team-mate Maverick Vinales’ decision to skip this weekend’s event after the death of his cousin Dean Berta Vinales in a World Supersport 300 race just five days ago.
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