As our exclusive photos of Jorge Lorenzo’s rear tyre at the end of the 45 minutes of running clearly show, the right-hand edge of the asymmetric cover was badly worn.

This problem was reported up and down the pitlane, with Honda’s Marc Marquez speaking out on the subject.

“The main primary [problem] was the rear tyre, on the right side [it] was completely destroyed,” he said. “Sometimes in FP1 this can happen, because the track is dirty.

“I think already Michelin is starting to think how it can manage this problem, if they need to increase the pressure or something like this. We will see for FP2.”

Only soft rear tyre available on Friday

Tyre supplier Michelin’s main problem is that it only has the soft rear tyre available today, as its hard compound only arrives at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday.

When asked if he thinks that will solve the problems, Marquez replied: “We will see, we will see.

“At the moment the thing is with this [soft] rear tyre they lowered the pressure so we gain more grip, the immediately reaction is the life of the tyre is much less.

“They must think about this, increase again the rear tyre pressure it will be enough, or maybe when the track has more rubber it will be fine.

“At the the moment it’s something that everybody is waiting for.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont