MotoGP Austria: Maverick Vinales outpaces Ducatis in first practice

Ducati riders dominated the pre-event test in July, ahead of the first motorcycle grand prix in Austria since 1997, but conditions on Friday morning were significantly cooler.

The air temperature was 9C at the start of the session, and track temperatures were down on the two days of July running by 20-25C.

Riders also had to come to terms with a reprofiled final corner and new rear tyres from Michelin, and worked their way into proceedings.

As a result, Vinales' benchmark of 1m25.866s was 2.626 seconds slower than Andrea Iannone's fastest time of the test.

While Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci shared time at the top of the order early with Marc VDS Honda's Jack Miller and then Yamaha's Valentino Rossi, it was more than half an hour before a factory Ducati was setting the pace, when Iannone recorded a 1m26.332s to go fastest.

Yonny Hernandez then moved to the top with a 1m26.306s, as his Aspar Ducati team-mate Eugene Laverty crashed at the Turn 8 right-hander exiting the infield section.

Moments later and with 12 minutes remaining, the session was red-flagged, five minutes after Dani Pedrosa crashed at the penultimate corner.

The front wheel of the Spaniard's Honda locked under braking, and while he slid along the run-off area, his bike damaged the air fence and subsequently landed atop the tyre barrier behind it.

When running resumed, Vinales moved to the top five with five minutes remaining, backing up his fastest time with a 1m25.880s that would have also been good enough to lead the session.

Factory Ducatis occupied second and third, with Andrea Dovizioso and Iannone 0.079s and 0.211s slower than Vinales.

Rossi moved to fourth on his final lap, a 1m26.232s, while his Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was quiet in the cool conditions but improved from 13th to seventh at the end of the session.

Hernandez was fifth, ahead of Honda's championship leader Marc Marquez, who missed the test and led the way briefly.

Marquez's team-mate Pedrosa was unhurt in his crash but did not rejoin the session, finishing 22nd and last.

Miller, Petrucci and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro - running as a wildcard on an entry originally offered to Casey Stoner - rounded out the top 10 covered by 0.754s.

Aprilia's Stefan Bradl was 18th fastest but the first rider to crash, losing control of his RS-GP exiting Turn 3, the second of the slow right-handers in the first half of the lap.

FP1 TIMES