Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team top the Practice timesheets at COTA. Tenth place for Francesco Bagnaia

• Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli are second and third, respectively, aboard the Ducati machines of the VR46 Racing Team, followed by the Gresini Racing Team duo of Alex Márquez and Fermín Aldeguer in fourth and fifth place, for an all-Ducati top five

Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team have claimed the first position at the end of the Practice session at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas. Bagnaia completed the top ten to secure the direct seed to tomorrow’s Q2.

After a fully wet morning session, the track gradually dried up during Practice at CoTA. Marquéz logged a 2’02.929 in the final stages as he finished with a 0.736secs margin on Di Giannantonio’s second place. After making his way up to the top six, Bagnaia did not manage to further improve in the closing minutes.

The riders of the Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action tomorrow at 10:10 local time (GMT -5) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q2 (11:15) and by the third sprint race of the season (10 laps), which will get underway at 15:00.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“The day didn’t start of the best way: maybe I pushed a bit too much and the track was really wet; the bike ended up aquaplaning and I crashed at turn two. I was a bit more careful in the rest of the session and still managed to finish third. The important thing is the afternoon result and we’re happy. We must wait to have a clearer picture, but at the moment, the feeling is good.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 10th
“Generally speaking, it was a positive Friday and I’m happy with the feeling I had especially in wet conditions, where normally is takes a little bit of time for me to get up to speed. The conditions during practice were not ideal and I tried to go with the soft tyre at the front-end, but didn’t manage to make the most of the situation. We’re in the top ten and that’s the important thing. They did a great job with the new asphalt, which is much more levelled and allows us to push very hard.”