riders in third and fifth place, respectively, both less than 3 tenths of a second off Friday top man Stefan Bradl.

Good weather allowed a first day of practice without incident, starting with a morning session in which Dani Pedrosa set the second fastest time ‒343 milliseconds off the fastest lap by Jorge Lorenzo. His teammate in Repsol Honda, Marc Marquez, was fourth ‒422 milliseconds off the Yamaha rider.

In the afternoon things developed in a similar fashion, as Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez were the main protagonists of the second session. However, in the final minutes Bradl sneaked in to set the best time of the day, followed by Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Rossi and Marquez.

Pedrosa was just one tenth of a second off the German rider’s time and Marquez lapped two tenths slower. On his last flying lap in the second practice session, Marquez was on course for the top spot before encountering traffic, losing his opportunity.