Takaaki Nakagami came out the blocks fastest for LCR Honda as MotoGP thundered from its summer break into the Styrian Grand Prix weekend at the Red Bull Ring.
Nakagami spent the entirety of the session scrapping within the leading times, initially snatching away the top spot from Suzuki’s Joan Mir during the mid-point of the test before losing his effort due to a track limits infringement.
Mir’s 1:24.428s tour therefore held strong at the head of the field ahead of Honda’s Marc Marquez and Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, though the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro soon came out to play as the Spaniard banged in a set of flyers as the session approached its climax.
Mir was ready to pounce back though as he countered every punch Espargaro could throw, the pair at one point matching each other to the thousandth before Mir ultimately opened up a healthy advantage out in front with a 1:32.881s.
Nakagami though was keen to get in on the action having lapped just a fraction slower on his penultimate effort, the LCR man managing to fire in a strong 1:23.805s on his final gambit to grab the initiative right at the end.
This left Mir in second ahead of Aleix, while the second Suzuki of Alex Rins and the other factory Honda of Pol Espargaro completed the top five.
Marquez was shuffled down to sixth in the end just clear of Vinales and series leader Fabio Quartararo, while Ducati duo Johann Zarco and Jack Miller rounded out the top ten.
Dani Pedrosa made a welcome return to MotoGP in FP1 in his one-off return as a wild-card for KTM, the ex-Honda racer managing an impressive 11th best time to end up as the fastest representative for the Austrian marque despite breaking down in the latter stages of the session.
Full-time team-mate Miguel Oliveira was 15th after suffering a nasty high-side at Turn 3 towards the end of the 45-minute session, the Portuguese thrown violently from his RC16 after initially running slightly wide.
He hit the ground hard but managed to get away to the inside of the circuit, but looked dazed for several minutes before returning to the pits.
Valentino Rossi-who announced his retirement from MotoGP at the end of the year on Thursday-ended up 16th as the first of the Petronas SRT Yamaha’s, with team-mate Cal Crutchlow-who replaces the injured Franco Morbidelli for three events-bringing up the rear in 23rd.
