MotoGP Indianapolis: Valentino Rossi fastest in first practice

This weekend's grand prix is MotoGP's first appearance at the track since it was reconfigured for IndyCar's debut on the Indianapolis infield circuit in May.

Times were immediately much quicker than had been the case on the previous, tighter, layout, with Rossi's benchmark 1m34.535s on his Yamaha 3.4 seconds up on the 2013 pole and 6.2s quicker than the best opening practice time 12 months ago.

Rossi emerged on top after a late exchange of positions with Italian compatriot Andrea Iannone's Pramac Ducati.

Iannone - who will next year - beat Rossi's previous time by two tenths in the final minutes.

But Rossi responded and went 0.044s quicker than Iannone, before Bradley Smith stuck his Tech 3 Yamaha between the two Italians with a lap 0.034s off Rossi.

Championship leader Marc Marquez was back in fifth, 0.350s off the pace and behind Smith's team-mate Pol Espargaro.

Marquez had led much of the session by a comfortable margin before Rossi demoted him going into the last five minutes, kicking off a run of late improvements.

Jorge Lorenzo was sixth, ahead of Scott Redding on Gresini's production Honda.

Dani Pedrosa was only 16th on the second works Honda as he conserved tyres.

Another underdog to fly was local favourite Colin Edwards, who got as high as fourth late on before being pushed down to 11th.

With Edwards retiring after 2014, this weekend will be his last home race, and rumours continue that he will call a halt to his farewell season early.

Edwards is the only American in the field this weekend as Nicky Hayden has been sidelined by surgery on an old arm injury.

Hayden's replacement Leon Camier was at the tail of the field as he settled in on the Aspar Honda.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m34.535s
 2.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m34.569s  +0.034s
 3.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m34.579s  +0.044s
 4.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m34.678s  +0.143s
 5.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m34.885s  +0.350s
 6.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m35.084s  +0.549s
 7.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m35.122s  +0.587s
 8.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m35.283s  +0.748s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m35.445s  +0.910s
10.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m35.501s  +0.966s
11.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m35.743s  +1.208s
12.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m35.935s  +1.400s
13.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m35.953s  +1.418s
14.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m35.972s  +1.437s
15.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m35.995s  +1.460s
16.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m36.419s  +1.884s
17.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m36.436s  +1.901s
18.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m36.444s  +1.909s
19.  Broc Parkes       PBM-Aprilia           1m36.445s  +1.910s
20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia          1m36.837s  +2.302s
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m38.399s  +3.864s
22.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m38.405s  +3.870s
23.  Leon Camier       Aspar Honda           1m39.962s  +5.427s