What happened in first Misano MotoGP practice

MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin narrowly led Aragon dominator Marc Marquez in opening practice for the first of the two back-to-back Misano race weekends.

Martin's 2024-spec Pramac Ducati was just 0.037 seconds faster than Marquez's year-old Gresini version.

But the third-place rider was more of a surprise: KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro was two tenths of a second off the top spot as he began his latest return to the grid, four places ahead of lead full-time KTM rider Brad Binder.

Champion Pecco Bagnaia had been concerned that lingering pain from last weekend's monster crash with Alex Marquez might hamper him at what is usually one of his strongest tracks.

He was only eighth in the first session, but looked comfortable on the bike and often makes a muted start to weekends anyway.

Works Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini - who was well off the pace over a single lap again at Aragon last week - was down in 13th.

Fabio Quartararo made use of a fresh front tyre to put his Yamaha fifth, just behind Martin's Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli.

Honda's Joan Mir is sitting out the Friday running due to what the team described as "continued intense gastroenteritis".

He had already skipped the Thursday media commitments and will be assessed again at the end of the day to see if he will be well enough to participate from Saturday.