Marc Marquez dominates Austin MotoGP Friday practice despite crash

Jorge Lorenzo was the first rider to dip below the 2m05s barrier on Friday afternoon with a 2m04.966s lap to take top spot just under 20 minutes into the session, but his time there lasted mere seconds.

Having set the pace in first practice, Marquez displaced him almost immediately with a lap of 2m04.560s, 0.406 seconds up on Lorenzo.

Marquez was set to go faster again the following lap - by nearly six tenths and projected to dip into the 2m03s - but lost the front end at the final corner and crashed, having to push his bike back to Honda's garage.

When he rejoined the track about 10 minutes later, Marquez lowered the benchmark to a 2m04.034s on his second flying lap, 0.825s clear of Andrea Iannone, who had jumped from 14th to eighth and then to second on consecutive laps.

While Ducati rider Iannone improved twice on his final two laps, Marquez's advantage at the end of the 45 minutes was 0.706s over the rest of the field.

The same margin covered the balance of the top 10.

Maverick Vinales was third for Suzuki, ahead of Scott Redding, who jumped up the order just before the chequered flag was shown.

Yamaha pair Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi wound up fifth and sixth, 0.867s and 0.940s down on Marquez, while Loris Baz was seventh.

Dani Pedrosa was more than one second off his factory Honda team-mate's pace in eighth, while Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow completed the top 10.

Aleix Espargaro crashed his Suzuki after the chequered flag was shown and finished 14th, two spots ahead of Avintia Ducati rider Eugene Laverty, who went down at Turn 2 with five minutes to go.

Following his heavy crash in the morning session, Jack Miller rode but visibly struggled with his right leg, and finished 20th in the order.

PRACTICE TWO TIMES