Lorenzo duels with Marquez on opening day

Jorge Lorenzo

The MotoGP World Championship returned from its summer break to provide copious amounts of entertainment on the first day of practice at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. It was Jorge Lorenzo who took advantage of the blue skies and almost ideal conditions (47 C Track Temp) to top both Free Practice sessions ahead of Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez.

FP2 saw grip levels improved from the morning session as riders bedded in the track, and Lorenzo left it until his very last lap to set a 1'32.860.

Marquez was just three thousandths of a second further back in second overall and was the only other rider to break the 1'33 barrier, as he looks to make it 3 MotoGP wins in a row at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ducati Team's Andrea Dovizioso (+0.295s) completed the provisional front row ahead of his teammate Andrea Iannone (0.306s) in fourth, as they both seemed to benefit from a private test at Misano during the summer break.

CWM LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow (+0.326s) improved by over a second throughout the day to finish as the leading Satellite rider in fifth, ahead of Pol Espargaro (+502s) on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1 who suffered a nasty looking highside at the end of FP2 at turn 13.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Dani Pedrosa (+0.517s) on the second Repsol Honda ended the day in seventh, while Scott Redding (+0.583s) continued to show signs of improvement on the EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda to finish in eighth. Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) set a time good enough for ninth overall, while the current Championship leader Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) found himself down in tenth on the combined timesheets, 0.672s behind his teammate Lorenzo.

Avintia Racing's Hector Barbera was the leading Open class rider in 14th, ahead of the Factory Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR of Aleix Espargaro in 15th, and local hero Nicky Hayden on the Aspar MotoGP Team Honda.

Hayden's teammate Eugene Laverty managed to end the day in 19th, with Stefan Bradl making his debut on the Factory Aprilia Racing Team Gresini RS-GP in 20th, 0.131s ahead of his teammate Alvaro Bautista. Tony Elias, who is filling in for the injured Karel Abraham in the AB Motoracing team, finished the day in 23rd.

Jorge Lorenzo
"I'm very happy, because with every change we made we were able to improve the bike a bit. I'm riding very well and had a good feeling with the bike so I was able to ride close to the limit for the moment. We had the same sensation with the harder tire, while other riders had used a new soft tire they couldn't even get close to our time, so that was a very good sign in the morning and we confirmed it in the afternoon. Let's see if we continue working this way and we'll concentrate on improving the bike even more."

Marc Marquez
"It was the first day back after the break and I think it went pretty well overall. I felt comfortable on the bike and that is the most important thing. The track is gaining grip but we must continue working in the same way in order to continue improving. Currently Jorge is the rider that seems to be strongest, but tomorrow we will try to get a little closer to him."

Practice 2 Results