Athens News - World champion Marquez crashes twice in Indonesia MotoGP practice

Spanish great Marquez took a spill early on in the afternoon session, sliding off the track, before returning only to suffer a heavier crash after a wobble threw him off his Ducati.

The 32-year-old was able to recover but could only set the 11th-fastest time, leaving him out of the top 10 and dropping into the first round of qualifying on Saturday for the first time this season.

It was instead Aprilia's Bezzecchi who set the standard in humid conditions at the Mandalika track on the resort island of Lombok.

The Italian, fourth in the overall standings, recorded a best time of 1min 29.24sec, 0.408sec ahead of Ducati's Fermin Aldeguer and 0.424sec faster than KTM's Pedro Acosta.

Marquez will be joined in Q1 by two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia, third in the championship standings, who struggled to a 17th-fastest time.

Marquez, who has already set a single-season points record for a MotoGP rider, can still reach the second qualifying round if he finishes fastest or second-fastest in the first qualifying session.

His brother Alex, second in the overall standings, also went down in a painful crash but his bike bore the brunt of the damage. He sneaked into Q2 on Saturday with the 10th-fastest time.

A dramatic practice session also saw Johann Zarco and Enea Bastianini crash.

Honda's Luca Marini topped the morning practice session, with Marc Marquez fifth.

The top 10 fastest riders in practice book their tickets for Saturday's second qualifying session, which shapes the first four rows of the grid.

This group is then joined by the two fastest riders from the first qualifying session.

Qualifying determines the grid for both the sprint race on Saturday and the main event GP on Sunday afternoon, with a maximum 37 points available.

F.Tsakiris--AN-GR