Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone topped the opening practice session for MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, beating Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro by over half a second.

Iannone, who confirmed on Thursday he will leave Suzuki at the end of the 2018 season, left it until the final 30 seconds of the 45-minute Friday morning session to move to the top of the times, posting a best lap of 1m47.253s.

That was 0.550s up on Pirro, making his first of three planned starts on a third factory Ducati this year, who led the timesheets for the bulk of the running and ended up second.

Andrea Dovizioso made it a Ducati 1-2 for most of the way with a lap 0.192s slower than Pirro, which proved good enough for third in the final reckoning, 0.708s down on former team-mate Iannone.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales crashed at the first corner, San Donato, on his first flying lap, but he was able to recover to set the fourth-quickest time, fractionally slower than Dovizioso.

Setting identical times were Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller and championship leader Marc Marquez on the best of the Hondas, both recording a 1m48.035s to take fifth and sixth places.

Rookie Franco Morbidelli was an impressive seventh, less than two tenths shy of Marquez and 0.007s ahead of his mentor Valentino Rossi.

Jorge Lorenzo was a further thousandth of a second behind in ninth, while Cal Crutchlow completed a top 10 split by a little under a second.

Danilo Petrucci, who is vying to replace Lorenzo at the factory Ducati team next year, had a subdued start to his home race weekend in 13th place, making him the slowest of the four GP18 riders.

Dani Pedrosa likewise endured a tough opening session on the second works Honda that left him 17th.

Thomas Luthi was the only other crasher besides Vinales of a relatively incident-free session, losing the front end at the downhill Scarperia right-hander at the halfway point.

FP1 times

PosRiderTeamTimeGapLaps
1Andrea IannoneSuzuki1m47.253s-18
2Michele PirroDucati1m47.803s0.550s16
3Andrea DoviziosoDucati1m47.961s0.708s16
4Maverick VinalesYamaha1m47.995s0.742s18
5Jack MillerPramac Ducati1m48.035s0.782s19
6Marc MarquezHonda1m48.035s0.782s18
7Franco MorbidelliMVDS Honda1m48.211s0.958s19
8Valentino RossiYamaha1m48.218s0.965s19
9Jorge LorenzoDucati1m48.219s0.966s18
10Cal CrutchlowLCR Honda1m48.229s0.976s17
11Johann ZarcoTech3 Yamaha1m48.272s1.019s19
12Alex RinsSuzuki1m48.274s1.021s19
13Danilo PetrucciPramac Ducati1m48.304s1.051s19
14Aleix EspargaroAprilia1m48.384s1.131s16
15Pol EspargaroKTM1m48.570s1.317s18
16Karel AbrahamAspar Ducati1m48.573s1.320s16
17Dani PedrosaHonda1m48.669s1.416s19
18Takaaki NakagamiLCR Honda1m48.878s1.625s20
19Alvaro BautistaAspar Ducati1m48.920s1.667s20
20Bradley SmithKTM1m49.086s1.833s19
21Tito RabatAvintia Ducati1m49.181s1.928s17
22Thomas LuthiMVDS Honda1m49.460s2.207s15
23Scott ReddingAprilia1m49.499s2.246s13
24Hafizh SyahrinTech3 Yamaha1m49.650s2.397s17
25Xavier SimeonAvintia Ducati1m50.315s3.062s17
© 2016 Autosport