Dovizioso leads Ducati domination in FP1 at Aragon

Full MotoGP FP1 results from Aragon

Andrea Dovizioso tops an all-Ducati front four at the end of the opening free practice session at Aragon to send out an early warning to his MotoGP world title rivals.

Fresh from victory in Misano, Dovizioso bolted to the top of the times with a 1m 48.020s, to go under the current lap record, during his final run in FP1 to take control of the session for Ducati. The Italian rider was quickly followed by future team-mate Danilo Petrucci who slotted into second place just under two-tenths of a second behind on the Pramac Ducati.

Petrucci’s late improvement saw team-mate Jack Miller shuffled to third place on the final times, on the GP17, with his all his fellow front-running Ducati rivals on the GP18.

Despite appearing frustrated towards the end of the session, Jorge Lorenzo moved up to fourth place with his final fast lap of the session but almost three-quarters of a second behind team-mate Dovizioso.

Maverick Vinales led the charge against his Ducati rivals for Movistar Yamaha by taking fifth place during his final run, 0.052s behind Lorenzo, and just 0.001s in front of early pace-setter Marc Marquez.

The reigning MotoGP world champion comes into the Aragon round with a 67-point lead on Dovizioso, while he also had the honour of Turn 10 being named after him at the Spanish circuit, as the Repsol Honda rider failed to better his early quick lap of 1m 48.804s.

Valentino Rossi produced some late gains to move up to seventh on the Movistar Yamaha – but almost one second off Dovizioso – but kept ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco.

Cal Crutchlow also struggled to match Ducatis’ pace on the LCR Honda in ninth place as Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone held on to top ten spot and a provisional automatic Q2 place, two-tenths faster than team-mate Alex Rins.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa continues to struggle down in 18^th place, only one spot ahead of rookie Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Honda, while Avintia Ducati’s Xavier Simeon suffered a premature end to his FP1 with a blown engine.

After Christophe Ponsson was axed at Avintia Ducati as Tito Rabat’s injury stand-in, Jordi Torres returns to the GP paddock for his MotoGP debut. The Spanish rider ended the session 24th and last and over two seconds slower than nearest rival Hafizh Syahrin for Tech3.