Ducati topped the timesheets on the opening day of the final show down in Valencia on Friday, however it wasn't their championship contender at the top of the times, instead it was his teammate, Jorge Lorenzo setting the pace.

Just over a tenth behind the Ducati was the Repsol Honda of fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa with championship contender Andrea Dovizioso three tenths slower than his teammate in third overall.

Andrea Iannone was a very pleasing fourth for Suzuki, despite a late afternoon slide, while his teammate, Alex Rins had a much harder day and was back in 16th when the checkered flag was waved.

โ€œIt was a shame, the slide of Andrea at the end of the afternoon, because until that moment our day was very positive,' said Suzuki team Manager Davide Brivio. โ€œIn fact, the time he scored this morning is still worth 4th place in the combined classification, even though he could not go for a proper time attack yet. He has a good pace and feeling. He has remained among the fastest in both sessions."

"We still can improve something in the configuration so I hope tomorrow he will be able to further improve. Also Alex had a positive day, the current position in classification is a little misleading since today we did very intense work with him and he is just missing the time attack. We were able to finalize many little things for him, and tomorrow we will try to put them all together to see a marked improvement.โ€

Once again Johann Zarco was the quickest Yamaha, the French rookie finishing fifth overall ahead of championship leader, Marc Marquez in sixth.

Aussie rider Jack Miller was in top form finishing seventh, when after setting the pace in FP1 had an off and was forced onto his second bike.

GP of Valencia โ€“ Combined practice times of Day 1:
1. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 1'30.640
2. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 1'30.762 +0.122
3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 1'30.949 +0.309
4. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'31.045 +0.405
5. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'31.054 +0.414
6. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 1'31.243 +0.603
7. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'31.357 +0.717
8. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 1'31.383 +0.743
9. Michele PIRRO, Ducati Team - 1'31.413 +0.773
10. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'31.438 +0.798
11. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'31.488 +0.848
12. Maverick VIร‘ALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 1'31.624 +0.984
13. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'31.698 +1.058
14. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'31.733 +1.093
15. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'31.858 +1.218
16. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 1'31.876 +1.236
17. Mika KALLIO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'31.879 +1.239
18. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'31.926 +1.286
19. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 1'31.958 +1.318
20. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - 1'32.029 +1.389
21. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 1'32.076 +1.436
22. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - 1'32.151 +1.511
23. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 1'32.457 +1.817
24. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 1'32.587 1.947
25. Michael VAN DER MARK, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 1'33.101 +2.461