Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso leads first MotoGP practice in Argentina

On a dirty Termas de Rio Hondo circuit hosting proper Michelin running for the first time, laptimes were slow but improved gradually.

With 15 minutes to go, Jack Miller's 1m44.744s was more than four seconds off the pace set by Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro in the corresponding session 12 months earlier.

Miller later improved to a 1m44.244s, but his time at the top ended with three minutes remaining, when Marquez banked his 1.43.778s.

It looked set to be enough to lead the way, until Dovizioso recorded a time of 1m43.684s after the chequered flag had been shown.

Dovizioso's effort was 0.094 seconds up on Marquez, while Aspar Ducati satellite rider Yonny Hernandez also improved at the end to take third.

Suzuki's Maverick Vinales and Espargaro finished fourth and fifth, while Valentino Rossi jumped up to sixth in the closing stages.

Rossi sat out the first 20 minutes of running, and spent most of the session in the mid-teens.

Dani Pedrosa was seventh, while Miller ended up eighth, as Brits Bradley Smith and Scott Redding completed the top 10.

Qatar winner Jorge Lorenzo had a quiet start to the weekend, finishing 12th.

In the session's only incident, Pol Espargaro lost the front end of his Tech3 Yamaha at Turn 7 with 11 minutes remaining, and wound up 17th.

Set to replace injured Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci, Michele Pirro missed the session.

Pirro is currently travelling to Argentina following a Ducati test at Valencia, and his weekend will start with FP3 on Saturday morning.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS: