Marc Marquez quickest in Aragon FP1 as Martin struggles to 18th

Look at the top of the timesheets at MotorLand and you will find none other than Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) right where he loves to be. The reigning World Champion wasted zero time getting his home weekend rolling, storming out of the blocks to post a 1:47.532 that put him straight at the summit. That machine was singing, and it left the rest of the field scrambling to catch up from the very first minute.

It was tight at the absolute sharp end, though. Raul Fernandez (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP), fresh off his British Grand Prix win, slotted in right behind him with a gap of just 0.035s splitting the compatriots. Meanwhile, Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) waited until the dying moments of the session to snatch P3. That late flyer shoved Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) down to P4, leaving just over two and a half tenths to cover the four fastest riders as an interesting sandwich of two Aprilias sitting between a pair of Ducatis.

Unfortunately, not everyone kept their machine pointing in the right direction. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) suffered an early crash when Turn 3 bit hard, losing the front-end of his bike with less than 10 minutes on the clock in a setback for his title chase. Not long after, with just over five minutes remaining, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) joined him on the sidelines. The fifth-fastest rider binned it at the notoriously tricky Turn 12, bringing a premature end to the Spaniard's morning.

Then there is the quiet story further down the order. World Championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) endured a very subdued opening session, ending up all the way down in P18 and 1.5s off the pace. The #89 machine clearly has work to do, and he will be hunting for major improvements when Practice gets underway later in the day at 15:00 local time (UTC +2).