JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, Spain – The MotoGP season finally kicked off on Friday, with Marc Marquez leading the opening day of practice at Spain’s Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto.

Marquez was fastest overall thanks to his top time in the first of two practice sessions. His 1:37.350 lap gave him the fastest time of the day by a scant .020 seconds over Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales.

“I’m happy again today. It is great to officially start the 2020 season and I felt really good from this morning, starting with the base we found on Wednesday,” said Marquez, who had a minor fall in the second practice that he walked away from uninjured. “Then in the afternoon today we started to experiment a bit, trying a few ideas and using the time differently. I feel competitive, our opponents are fast but I’m feeling good. We had one small crash today because the track temperature is really high, making the track slippery. I went a bit wide and maybe I need to practice saving it with my elbow again, it’s just the second day back after a long break. But I was able to keep riding the bike, it was a really small crash.”

Cal Crutchlow was third fastest for LCR Honda, followed by Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Suzuki’s Joan Mir.