Dovizioso fastest, Marquez crashes in Japan

With conditions still poor, Marquez's practice one benchmark of 1m55.418s went unbeaten in the early stages of the afternoon's running.

That was until Dovizioso posted a 1m54.877s a little over 15 minutes into the session, surpassing Marquez's morning time by six tenths of a second and opening up a 1.1s cushion on the field.

Tech3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco slashed Dovizioso's advantage to a little under six tenths with 15 minutes to go as he leapt into second, before Marquez managed to come within 0.043s of beating his title rival.

But, shortly after moving into second, Marquez crashed his works Honda at the Turn 4/5 esses, bringing a premature end to his session and ensuring Dovizioso finished the day on top.

Despite his late fall, Marquez ended up second-fastest, as Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro made a late jump to third with a time 0.184s shy of Dovizioso.

Jorge Lorenzo was fourth on the second factory Ducati, 0.357s behind his team-mate, with Zarco once again ending up as the best Yamaha rider in fifth place.

Danilo Petrucci made it three GP17s in the top six aboard his Pramac example, followed by Andrea Iannone's Suzuki - now sporting the firm's new 'moustache' fairing.

Honda pair Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow and the second Suzuki of Alex Rins rounded out the top 10.

It was another difficult session for works Yamaha riders Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi, who ended up 11th and 12th, 1.499s and 1.588s off the pace respectively.

Rossi only just beat Tech3 novice Kohta Nozane by 0.018s, as Jonas Folger's replacement once more ended up comfortably quickest of the contingent of local riders.

Besides Marquez, Bradley Smith and Scott Redding were the other riders to suffer crashes, both at Turn 11 at the end of the long back straight.