Marc Marquez third in Portuguese MotoGP FP1, Vinales first

Marc Marquez completed the top three on his return to MotoGP after nine months of a break at the Portuguese Grand Prix, Maverick Vinales led opening practice alongside Alex Rins.

Marc Marquez back on his Repsol Honda after 9 months of Injury layoff break on Portuguese GP. Marc Marquez started an official MotoGP session, after 265days of injury break on Moto: GP factory bike. Marc suffered a serious arm break in the 2020 season-opener at Jerez.

Overnight rain left the fans a bit worried about the Free Practice 1 of Portuguese GP, rainy track means, lap times go slower at around 15 seconds slower than usual.

Yamaha looks strong again in Portugues Gp FP1 as Factory Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales took over from reigning world champion Joan Mir with 16 minutes to go with a 1m44.777s, which he improved on his following tour to a 1m44.334s.

Francesco Bagnaia moved his factory Ducati ahead of the Qatar GP race winner with a 1m44.239s moments later before Vinales dipped under the 1m44s bracket with a 1m43.544s.

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The timing screen continued to light up as the opening 45-minute session of the weekend drew to a close, the returning Marquez serving a brief stint at the top of the pile with a 1m43.544s.

The Honda rider remained fastest for all of 10 seconds before Bagnaia blasted his effort away with a 1m42.934s. Marquez looked set to steal all the headlines when he shot back to the top of the order with a 1m42.378s on his final effort.

But faster laps for both Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Vinales denied this, the Yamaha rider setting the pace at 1m42.127s to lead Rins by 0.151s.

Marquez held onto third, 0.251s off Vinales’ pace ahead of Honda teammate Pol Espargaro, while championship leader Johann Zarco was fifth on his Pramac Ducati.

Bagnaia was shuffled back to sixth at the end ahead of Fabio Quartararo.

Valentino Rossi was 11th on the Petronas SRT Yamaha, while champion Mir was 13th ahead of the other SRT bike of Franco Morbidelli.

FP2 will get underway at 2:10 pm local time.