MOTOGP: Dovizioso fastest, five manufacturers head the FP1 times

Ducati leads Honda, Yamaha, KTM and Suzuki as the opening MotoGP™ session springs some shocks

2018 Czech GP winner Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) launched his 2019 Monster Energy Grand Prix České republiky in perfect fashion after going P1 in FP1, his 1:56.919 was enough to edge out title rival Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) by 0.029 as Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Red Bull KTM Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira finished within a tenth of the Italian.

It was Marquez who led for most of the first session as the premier class riders got back into the swing of things after a three-week summer break. One rider who didn’t get much of a summer break though was Team Suzuki Ecstar test rider Sylvain Guintoli but that didn’t seem to affect the veteran Frenchman. Guintoli went second in the latter stages before being shuffled back to fifth by the end of the session, with Dovizioso, Viñales and Oliveira all improving late in FP1 – the latter sitting quickest in the final two sectors.

Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) was the second fastest Ducati on Friday morning, he finished 0.466 off Dovi with another big surprise name appearing in the top 10 just behind the Australian – Hafizh Syahrin making it two Red Bull KTM Tech 3’s in the top seven.

Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) crashed at Turn 13 but was okay.