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Le Mans MotoGP: Marc Marquez leads the way in first practice

Marc Marquez began the Le Mans MotoGP weekend on top as he set the Friday morning practice pace

The championship leader led a Honda one-two ahead of team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Marquez's early benchmark had been beaten by LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl, but the Spaniard reclaimed the top spot with two rapid mid-session laps culminating in a 1m34.383s.

That would have been sufficient for first place even if he had not improved to 1m34.328s with his very last lap of the morning.

Pedrosa also found time on his final lap to beat the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo to second.

Alvaro Bautista took fifth ahead of Bradl, with Andrea Dovizioso the top Ducati in seventh.

Bradley Smith crashed at the start of the session, losing control of his Tech 3 Yamaha into the Chemin aux Boeufs esses at the end of the back straight.

The Briton had to abandon his primary bike but was unhurt and able to rejoin on his spare later on.

The field is down to 22 bikes this weekend as Ioda is absent.

Regular rider Danilo Petrucci fractured a wrist in a warm-up crash at Jerez a fortnight ago, and his planned replacement Luca Scassa then sustained a leg injury in testing this week.

Pos Rider            Team                   Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m34.328s           20
 2. Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m34.517s  +0.189s  21
 3. Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m34.581s  +0.253s  19
 4. Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m34.598s  +0.270s  18
 5. Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m34.653s  +0.325s  20
 6. Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m34.734s  +0.406s  21
 7. Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m34.875s  +0.547s  20
 8. Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m34.929s  +0.601s  22
 9. Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m34.933s  +0.605s  21
10. Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m35.073s  +0.745s  16
11. Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m35.431s  +1.103s  17
12. Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m35.438s  +1.110s  20
13. Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m35.638s  +1.310s  20
14. Nicky Hayden      Aspar Honda           1m35.762s  +1.434s  19
15. Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m36.149s  +1.821s  18
16. Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m36.458s  +2.130s  19
17. Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m36.663s  +2.335s  17
18. Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m37.026s  +2.698s  20
19. Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m37.120s  +2.792s  14
20. Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m37.404s  +3.076s  19
21. Broc Parkes       PBM Aprilia           1m38.933s  +4.605s  16
22. Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           1m39.055s  +4.727s  17


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