Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team second quickest in Misano Friday. Francesco Bagnaia nineteenth

• Four Ducatis in the top five: Alex Márquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) is third ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Racing Team)
  
  

The Ducati Lenovo Team tackled the opening day of action ahead of the home crowd at the Misano World Circuit 'Marco Simoncelli'. Marc Márquez finished Practice in second place, while Francesco Bagnaia, nineteenth, will have to tackle Q1.

Márquez, the quickest rider in FP1, made his way back to the top with ten minutes remaining in the Practice session before finishing second – just over a tenth of a second behind today's fastest time. Bagnaia, who was eighteenth in the morning, made a step forward in terms of lap time in the early stages of the afternoon session but was unable to make the difference towards the end.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will resume proceedings tomorrow morning at 10:10 local time (GMT +2) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q1 (10:50), Q2 (11:15) and by the thirteenth Sprint of the season, to be contested over a 13-lap distance from 15:00.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“It went as expected. We worked on the set-up and on tyre evaluation, trying to get as ready as possible for the races while avoiding pushing hard for too many laps. We have the single-lap speed, while over the longer distance we don't fully know how consistent we can be. We will keep focusing on this. Misano is a high-grip, very tight and very demanding circuit, and this is why we are all very close lap-time-wise. There are many competitive riders at this track, so it'll be important to stay in the top three or four.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 19th
“We have been struggling to understand the bike behaviour in the last three rounds, especially regarding the engine brake and rear-end grip. It's a situation that had never appeared beforehand, but the bike is now quite nervous and it is difficult to feel the differences in set-up. While comparing our data with the other Ducati riders, it's clear that there are differences under braking, mid-turn as well as on corner exit, but for some reason we're unable to replicate the same behaviour. We're still working relentlessly in order to find a solution ahead of tomorrow and Sunday.”