Motorsport | MotoGP
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Championship leader Marc Marquez, who is bidding to become motorcycling's youngest champion, topped the times in Friday's practice for this weekend's season-closing Valencia MotoGP.
The Honda rookie holds a 13-point lead over his fellow Spaniard, Yamaha's defending champion Jorge Lorenzo.
Marquez topped the time sheets after the two sessions with a best lap of 1min 31.220sec, followed by teammate Dani Pedrosa (at 0.066sec)and Lorenzo (0.158sec).
"We have a new surface but there wasn't much grip," said Marquez, who won the Moto2 title on the same circuit last year.
"The track is nice, without many bumps but even so my feeling with the bike was quite good. We still need to make some improvements as I'm not 100% happy, but we're going in the right way."
Marquez knows that a podium finish, or even coming home fourth on Sunday, would make him the youngest premier class champion of all time.
"It was good to start the most important week of the season and with a good feeling," added the 20-year-old.
"We still need to improve our setup but we were fastest today – which is the key thing ahead of Sunday's race. Tomorrow we will continue in the same way but try to improve and take another step forward because I am sure that the rest of the riders will do so."
Lorenzo added: "This afternoon was very windy so it was very difficult to make the same lap time of the morning but we managed to improve it a little bit.
"We adjusted the bike a little electronically and also the suspension. We are quite close to everyone and ready to keep working tomorrow."
Marquez is still favourite to make history on Sunday but he has seen his lead whittled down by Lorenzo's late charge in recent weeks.
TIMES
1. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 1:31.220
2. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) at 0.066sec
3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) 0.158
4. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Yamaha Tech3) 0.282
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 0.419
6. Stefan Bradl (GER/Honda LCR) 0.638
7. Alvaro Bautista (ESP/Honda Gresini) 0.653
8. Bradley Smith (GBR/Yamaha Tech3) 0.764
9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 1.143
10. Nicky Hayden (USA/Ducati) 1.175
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