Marc Marquez sets blistering pace in Valencia MotoGP test

The Honda rider had bettered Jorge Lorenzo's day one benchmark by the late morning by dipping under the 1m31s barrier and went even faster in the early afternoon to end up on top in 1m30.536s.

He even survived a scary moment at Turn 6 where he lost control of his bike on corner entry, but managed to avoid an accident by riding onto the asphalt run-off on the outside of the track.

Lorenzo was 0.232s slower on his Yamaha in second, with Dani Pedrosa third on the second factory Honda after setting his best lap of the day inside the final 15 minutes of running.

Honda riders occupied the next two positions as well, with LCR's Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista's Gresini bike rounding out the top five.

British rider Bradley Smith was sixth on his Tech 3 Yamaha, with Valentino Rossi's Yamaha and Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati behind him.

New Tech 3 signing Pol Espargaro continued to gain mileage on ahead of his MotoGP debut next year and set the ninth best time, just ahead of Andrea Iannone's Pramac Ducati and Cal Crutchlow's works example.

Nicky Hayden, riding a Honda for the first time since 2008, was 13th fastest on his first appearance on the Japanese manufacturer's production racer with Aspar.

Forward Racing ran its new Yamaha-FTRs for the first time and had Colin Edwards and new signing Aleix Espargaro in action.

Briton Michael Laverty caused a red flag when he crashed his PBM Aprilia with half an hour to go while Randy de Puniet also rode for the team as he assesses his options for next year.

Pos Rider              Bike                    Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Marc Marquez       Honda                   1m30.536s           77
 2. Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha                  1m30.768s  +0.232s  60
 3. Dani Pedrosa       Honda                   1m30.948s  +0.412s  72
 4. Stefan Bradl       LCR Honda               1m30.990s  +0.454s  60
 5. Alvaro Bautista    Gresini Honda           1m31.208s  +0.672s  72
 6. Bradley Smith      Tech 3 Yamaha           1m31.397s  +0.861s  78
 7. Valentino Rossi    Yamaha                  1m31.414s  +0.878s  57
 8. Andrea Dovizioso   Ducati                  1m31.661s  +1.125s  62
 9. Pol Espargaro      Tech 3 Yamaha           1m31.836s  +1.300s  72
10. Andrea Iannone     Pramac Ducati           1m31.844s  +1.308s  68
11. Cal Crutchlow      Ducati                  1m32.114s  +1.578s  53
12. Michele Pirro      Ducati                  1m32.473s  +1.937s  65
13. Nicky Hayden       Aspar Honda             1m32.576s  +2.040s  76
14. Yonny Hernandez    Pramac Ducati           1m32.800s  +2.264s  27
15. Aleix Espargaro    Forward Yamaha          1m32.847s  +2.311s  18
16. Colin Edwards      Forward Yamaha          1m33.149s  +2.613s  34
17. Michael Laverty    PBM Aprilia             1m33.672s  +3.136s  43
18. Randy de Puniet    PBM Aprilia             1m33.833s  +3.297s  37
19. Scott Redding      Gresini Honda           1m34.541s  +4.005s  23
20. Mike di Meglio     Avintia-FTR Kawasaki    1m34.618s  +4.082s  42