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The Ducati rider, keen to build on a strong performance in the previous round at Silverstone, worked hard in treacherous conditions and was rewarded with a lap of 1m 49.195secs.

Dovizioso's time was over a second faster than that of Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa who finished the session in second, one place ahead of teammate Marc Marquez.

The Italian's best effort was also well ahead of the morning's best set by Yonny Hernandez, the young Columbian having thrown caution to the wind with hard riding aboard his Pramac Ducati.

Marquez, the defending champion and runaway series leader, played it safe in the first session though his best lap in 1m 52.003secs was second only to that of Hernandez.

Conditions had not improved for the afternoon. But Marquez, aiming to take his winning tally to a dozen races so far this season, returned to the track to clip some 1.5secs off his previous best.

Marquez was ensuring that his bike was ready and set-up for a wet race, though the forecast suggests that conditions will be much improved.

The Spaniard returned to winning ways last time out at Silverstone, after his perfect winning run ended in Brno, and will be keen to repeat his Misano success of last year.

Marquez is well placed to do just that despite being pushed down the timesheet by Pedrosa, who posted his best time in the final minutes of second practice.

The sodden track saw nine riders slide out of the action in the morning session, with Oxford's Bradley Smith coming off his Tech3 Yamaha on just his first lap.

Valentino Rossi, riding the circuit which is closest to his Tavullia home, went down as well.

But the Movistar Yamaha rider returned to the action with a number of cautious laps.

Brit Cal Crutchlow also slid out, as did Danilo Petrucci.

But they were all back for more as the rain continued to spoil the second session during which Aleix Espargaro and Karel Abraham crashed for a second time.