Marc Marquez tops Friday practice at Aragon MotoGP as Honda sweeps the top three

MARC Marquez has got his Aragon MotoGP weekend off on the right foot, topping Friday practice as Honda sweeps the top three.

Marc Marquez

CHAMPIONSHIP leader Marc Marquez posted the quickest time in Friday's combined free practice ahead of Sunday's Aragon MotoGP.

The 20-year-old MotoGP rookie took the free practice honours on his Honda, clocking a best lap of 1min 48.987sec.

Next best was Germany's Stefan Bradl and Marquez's teammate Dani Pedrosa, the winner last season.

Yamaha's defending champion Jorge Lorenzo, quickest in the morning's first session, ended the day fourth.

"Today, I didn't feel as good as I did in the test that we did here after the Barcelona GP, as there was less grip in these two practice sessions," Marquez told www.motogp.com.

"Anyway, it's the same for everyone. In general the feeling that we have is pretty good and I worked on various things with the bike today.

"However, we can still improve our setup. We hope to take that step forward tomorrow and we shall see if the grip level improves, as that would make things so much easier for everyone."

Lorenzo, and his teammate, seventh-placed Valentino Rossi, know they have work to do to challenge their Honda rivals.

"We hoped to improve the bike from the morning but we couldn't do it," Lorenzo said.

"I have a worse feeling than when we were here for the test. We have to keep working to improve the bike and the pace."

With five wins under his belt Marquez has a 34-point lead in the world championship standings over Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

Australian riders Bryan Staring and series returnee Damian Cudlin finished towards the bottom of the timesheets, logging the 22nd and 24th-best times respectively in each session.

RESULTS - Free Practice 1, Aragon MotoGP

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1m49.753s
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	+0.008s
3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	+0.195s
4	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	+0.466s
5	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	+0.746s
6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	+0.782s
7	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	+0.822s
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	+1.099s
9	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	+1.267s
10	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	+1.510s
11	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	+1.578s
12	Aleix Espargaro	ART	+2.069s
13	Hiroshi Aoyama	FTR	+2.217s
14	Hector Barbera	FTR	+2.273s
15	Claudio Corti	FTR Kawasaki	+2.369s
16	Danilo Petrucci	Ioda-Suter	+2.415s
17	Colin Edwards	FTR Kawasaki	+2.568s
18	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	+2.776s
19	Randy de Puniet	ART	+4.339s
20	Luca Scassa	ART	+4.784s
21	Michael Laverty	ART	+5.051s
22	Bryan Staring	FTR-Honda	+5.090s
23	Lukas Pesek	Ioda-Suter	+6.357s
24	Damian Cudlin	PBM	+7.172s

RESULTS - Free Practice 2, Aragon MotoGP

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	1m48.987s
2	Stefan Bradl	Honda	+0.132s
3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	+0.267s
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	+0.418s
5	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	+0.776s
6	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	+0.853s
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	+0.922s
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	+1.047s
9	Aleix Espargaro	ART	+1.068s
10	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	+1.459s
11	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	+1.740s
12	Hector Barbera	FTR	+1.926s
13	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	+1.957s
14	Yonny Hernandez	Ducati	+2.357s
15	Claudio Corti	FTR Kawasaki	+2.474s
16	Randy de Puniet	ART	+2.712s
17	Colin Edwards	FTR Kawasaki	+3.033s
18	Danilo Petrucci	Ioda-Suter	+3.134s
19	Hiroshi Aoyama	FTR	+3.240s
20	Michael Laverty	ART	+4.233s
21	Luca Scassa	ART	+4.351s
22	Bryan Staring	FTR-Honda	+4.570s
23	Lukas Pesek	Ioda-Suter	+5.806s
24	Damian Cudlin	PBM	+6.356s