Andrea Dovizioso has splashed his way to the top of the timesheet at the end of two wet practice sessions ahead of the San Marino MotoGP.

The first session was riddled with crashes as heavy overnight rain, followed by drizzle in the morning, made for treacherous conditions around the Misano circuit.

Colombia’s Yonny Hernandez on his Ducati initially led the way with a time of one minute 50.310 seconds, finishing 1.639secs clear of reigning champion Marc Marquez.

Come the second session, and only Dovizioso on the works Ducati was able to better Hernandez’s time as there was no improvement in the weather.

On home soil, and on an Italian bike, Dovizioso at least warmed up the crowd with a lap of 1min 49.195secs, and that was on his replacement bike as he had crashed early in FP2.

Dovizioso finished a respectable 1.161secs and 1.324secs ahead of Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Marquez, who can take a step closer to retaining his title with another win on Sunday.

Marquez is currently 89 points clear of Pedrosa after winning 11 of the 12 rounds to date, with Valentino Rossi a further 10 points off the pace.

Rossi could do no better than 10th on his Yamaha, finishing 2.5secs back on Dovizioso, and a second down on fourth-placed compatriot Danilo Petrucci riding for the small Ioda team on his Aprilia.

Dovizioso’s team-mate Cal Crutchlow was 11th, like Rossi also 2.5secs back, with Scott Redding 12th for Honda Gresini and Bradley Smith 18th, 4.5secs adrift on his Tech3 Yamaha.