Britain's Cal Crutchlow just edged out nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi to top the first MotoGP free practice timesheet at Laguna Seca but there was less than a tenth of a second between the Yamaha stablemates.
Crutchlow's 18th lap of 20 was enough to bag top spot on a 1'22.757 compared to Rossi's 1'22.848 while Laguna rookie Marc Marquez burst into third place with his last lap, circulating in 1'22.980.
Marquez' team-mate Dani Pedrosa didn't take part in the first practice, preferring to rest his damaged shoulder at a track he has seen many times before while fellow sicknote Jorge Lorenzo did eight laps to test his bike fitness and finished in 11th place on a 1'24.441, 1.684s off the pace.
The satellite but HRC bikes of Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista are in fourth and fifth, three and five-tenths off the pace respectively while Andrea Dovizioso managed to keep the CRT of Aleix Espargaro behind him for sixth.
Laguna king Nicky Hayden eighth with rookie Bradley Smith in ninth and Randy De Puniet in tenth, one place ahead of Lorenzo. Michael Laverty, also visiting dry lake for the first time, was 20th and four seconds in arrears.
