Jack Miller started the European Grand Prix weekend on top for Ducati with a stoic wet-weather display, the Pramac racer nearly half-a-second clear of Franco Morbidelli.
The Aussie flew to the head of the timesheets early on with a 1:42.263 laptime, Miller once again keen to prove his prowess in mixed conditions.
He remained at the head of the field for the bulk of the 45 minute session, even finding more time with just over a third of the test remaining to extend his leading gap over Petronas SRT’s Morbidelli to 0.467-an advantage that would ultimately remain until the chequered flag.
Having played himself into the title hunt with his dominant victory last time out in the Alcaniz GP at Aragon, Morbidelli started the weekend strongly as the fastest Yamaha representative by far, just heading an impressive Stefan Bradl on his factory Honda.
The German managed a tour just under a tenth quicker than team-mate Alex Marquez, the Spaniard fifth fastest in the session behind Avintia’s Johann Zarco.
Danilo Petrucci once again perked up as things got slippy with the sixth fastest time ahead of KTM’s Pol Espargaro, while Miguel Oliveira took eighth on the Tech 3-run KTM RC16.
Andrea Dovizioso made it four Ducati Desmosedici’s in the top ten with ninth overall, while Maverick Vinales completed the top ten on the first of the factory Yamaha’s-albeit just under half-a-second down on stablemate Morbidelli.
Points leader Joan Mir began the day quietly for Suzuki down in 17th, while team-mate Alex Rins didn’t fare much better in 13th behind LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Fabio Quartararo meanwhile could only manage a lowly 21st in the session-2.728 down on Miller’s leading benchmark-after seemingly struggling to make the front tyre on his M1 work in the tricky conditions, the Frenchman narrowly saving a potential low-side at Turn 2 late on.
Garrett Gerloff made his official MotoGP debut with the factory Yamaha outfit in FP1, the American standing in for Valentino Rossi on Friday as he waits for results of a third and final Covid-19 test in Valencia having flown in last night after passing his second at home in Italy on Thursday.
Subject to Rossi receiving a negative test on Friday evening, the Italian is set to return to action on Saturday after also missing both Aragon contests while recovering from the virus.
Gerloff impressed with the 16th fastest time ahead of the likes of Mir and Cal Crutchlow, lapping just 1.582 away from Miller’s session-leading effort, while fellow newcomer Lorenzo Savadori was 20th for Aprilia.
Despite the slidy track conditions gracing the Valencia venue, only two rider came unstuck and suffered incidents.
Francesco Bagnaia went down at Turn 2 after losing the front under braking as he was seemingly touring, while Marquez crashed late on at Turn 6 after the rear of his RC213-V slid out on him.
Both riders were uninjured in their respective spills, the pair both walking away to get prepared for FP2 on Friday afternoon.
