Marc Marquez picked up where he left off during a private COTA testౠ in March by leading the MotoGP field during a slippery Frᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚiday morning practice session for the inaugural event in Austin, Texas.

The Repsol Honda rookie, third on his MotoGP race deb🅘ut in Qatar, led most of the 45-minute session, finishing with an advantage of just 0.253s ove🍸r world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

However lap times were over 🌠five-seconds slower than the best set at the March test.

"It feels like the first day when we were 😼here for testing, the track has very little grip, so this morning I was just finding my rhythm and learning the lin🍎es again!" confirmed Marquez. "There's not much more to say! The times were slow but I think this afternoon's free practice will be better."

Maဣrquez's team-mate Dani Pedrosa was third fastest, but some 1.6s behi🍒nd the reigning Moto2 champion.

"It was very difficult to try any setꦫtings on the bike as the track conditions were not v﷽ery good, there is no grip," echoed Pedrosa. "Also, it's quite windy so on the straights the wind is cooling the tyres quite a lot. I hope that the conditions will improve this afternoon with some more sun and bikes on track"