Image: Supplied.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) shot back to the top of the time-sheets at the Monster Energy Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Friday.

A 1m55.976s was Pedrosa’s time to beat, taking him over a tenth clear of second placed and top Independent Team rider Danilo Petrucci (Alma Pramac Racing), as Alvaro Bautista (Angel Nieto Ducati) was third.

In fourth it was Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech 3). The Malaysian was not only top rookie by some margin, he was also top Yamaha and that after teammate Johann Zarco had also shown some good form in the morning to top FP1. Zarco did also improve his time in the afternoon, nut by only a tenth – leaving him ninth.

Behind Syahrin comes the second factory rider on the times in Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and the Italian was the first to set a time attack on new tyres in the latter stages of FP2. He led briefly, but rounds out the top five by the end of play on Friday just head of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP pairing Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi.

Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) took P8 to just pip Zarco by 0.014s and was another Independent Team Ducati rider to put in an impressive performance, with reigning champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) left to round out the top 10.

A host of usual top suspects found themselves out of provisional Q2 graduation, including former Brno winners Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda Castrol) in P14 and Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) in P15. Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone also missed out in P11 and P12, as Jack Miller (Alma Pramac Racing) slotted into 13th.

Marcel Schrötter (Dynavolt Intact GP) stamped his authority on the Moto2 grid after going quickest in both FP1 and FP2, ending Friday 0.201s ahead of championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Sky Racing Team VR46) in second, with Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Racing Team) third. Remy Gardner (Tech3 Racing) was P27 on the time-sheets.

In Moto3, Philipp Oettl’s (Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing) FP1 time was enough to keep him at the top of the combined time-sheets on the opening day, leading Kazuki Masaki (RBA BOE Skull Rider) and Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) overall on day one.

The biggest headline of the day however was a crash for the unlucky Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Moto3). An FP1 crash at Turn 10 resulted in the championship leader fracturing his left radius, which means he misses the remainder of the Czech GP as he flies back to Barcelona for surgery.