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Silverstone MotoGP: Marc Marquez fastest in first practice

Marc Marquez dominated the opening practice session for MotoGP's British Grand Prix at Silverstone

The reigning world champion, whose 2014 winning streak finally ended in the Czech Republic a fortnight ago, was on top throughout Friday morning's session.

Marquez generally kept his Honda between half a second and a second clear of his rivals, and ended the 45 minutes with a 0.661-second gap back to second-placed Andrea Iannone.

There was a scare for the championship leader, though, as he had to slew off the road at Vale when he nearly clipped Pol Espargaro's Tech 3 Yamaha on his final flying lap.

Until that incident, Marquez had looked set to go even quicker on that run.

Iannone thrust his Pramac Ducati into second ahead of Andrea Dovizioso's factory machine in the closing seconds.

Alvaro Bautista showed better form than of late to go fourth for Gresini, followed by Aleix Espargaro and Stefan Bradl.

Marquez's usual rivals were a long way down. Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were only seventh and eighth, with Brno winner Dani Pedrosa back in 10th on the second works Honda, 1.1s slower than his team-mate.

It was a tough start for home rider Michael Laverty and the British Paul Bird Motorsport team. Laverty sat out much of the early running in the pits, and then parked trackside with smoke pouring from his bike soon after making it out.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 2m03.208s
 2.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         2m03.869s  +0.661s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                2m04.052s  +0.844s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         2m04.187s  +0.979s
 5.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        2m04.212s  +1.004s
 6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             2m04.232s  +1.024s
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                2m04.240s  +1.032s
 8.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                2m04.281s  +1.073s
 9.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         2m04.301s  +1.093s
10.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 2m04.338s  +1.130s
11.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m04.609s  +1.401s
12.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m04.628s  +1.420s
13.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                2m05.130s  +1.922s
14.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         2m05.503s  +2.295s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         2m06.085s  +2.877s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           2m06.250s  +3.042s
17.  Alex de Angelis   Forward Yamaha        2m06.333s  +3.125s
18.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia          2m07.761s  +4.553s
19.  Leon Camier       Aspar Honda           2m07.774s  +4.566s
20.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m08.358s  +5.150s
21.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m09.056s  +5.848s
22.  Broc Parkes       PBM-Aprilia           2m10.042s  +6.834s
23.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           2m11.919s  +8.711s

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