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Laguna Seca MotoGP: Marc Marquez fastest in practice on first day

Marc Marquez belied his lack of Laguna Seca circuit knowledge to go fastest in Friday MotoGP practice at the Californian track

With Laguna the only MotoGP venue that feeder categories Moto2 and Moto3 do not visit, Marquez had not tried the venue until Friday practice.

But that did not stop him taking third in the morning, and in practice two he took control halfway through the session.

The factory Honda rider ended up on a 1m22.040s, 0.229 seconds ahead of nearest rival Stefan Bradl on the LCR Honda.

Just 0.077s covered Bradl, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi's Yamaha in second to fourth places.

Morning pacesetter Cal Crutchlow was back in fifth this time.

The still-recovering Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa both completed over 20 laps.

But while Lorenzo got up to sixth place, 0.4s off the pace and within 0.010s of Crutchlow, Pedrosa was back in 11th position, a second adrift.

Aleix Espargaro remained on top in CRT in seventh overall, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, Nicky Hayden and Bradley Smith's prototype bikes.

The session was delayed by 20 minutes when American wildcard Blake Young had a huge high-side at Turn 5.

While Young walked away from the violent tumble, his APR-Kawasaki bounced destructively down the track, dropping fluid in the process and forcing the long stoppage.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m22.040s
 2.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m22.269s  +0.229s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m22.284s  +0.244s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m22.346s  +0.306s
 5.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m22.457s  +0.417s
 6.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m22.467s  +0.427s
 7.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m22.531s  +0.491s
 8.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m22.539s  +0.499s
 9.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m22.733s  +0.693s
10.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m22.767s  +0.727s
11.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m23.129s  +1.089s
12.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m23.158s  +1.118s
13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m23.437s  +1.397s
14.  Alex de Angelis   Pramac Ducati         1m23.973s  +1.933s
15.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m24.047s  +2.007s
16.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m24.180s  +2.140s
17.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  1m24.410s  +2.370s
18.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       1m24.421s  +2.381s
19.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m24.473s  +2.433s
20.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           1m24.555s  +2.515s
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m24.727s  +2.687s
22.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     1m25.345s  +3.305s
23.  Blake Young       Attack APR-Kawasaki   1m25.764s  +3.724s
24.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        1m27.173s  +5.133s

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