Championship leader Marc Marquez topped the Czech Republic MotoGP free practice on Friday with the afternoon session disrupted by heavy rain that affected times.

Honda’s reigning world champion took 1min 56.803sec to cover the 5.4km circuit in dry conditions on Friday morning.

Fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha was 0.037sec behind Marquez and 0.015sec ahead of Marquez’s Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa.

Marquez, who tested a new bike for the 2015 season at Brno together with Pedrosa in July, said the conditions were different this time.

“From the first exit I saw that the grip was different,” he said.

“I started to change something on the bike because I didn’t feel good but we did a really good job and in the end I was happy with the setup.”

Marquez set the best wet time ahead of Pedrosa and Italy’s Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha.

“The biggest problem was two corners in the downhill, turn 10 and 11 were completely dry in the end so one part of the circuit was completely wet and the other part completely dry,” said Marquez.

“For that reason it was difficult to manage the tyres because when you push there you destroy it.”

Forecasters predict more rain for Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.

“This afternoon it was wet and we were not competitive compared to the Hondas, especially in the first laps,” said Lorenzo.

“We don’t have so much grip, we need to find some. If it rains, we’re going to struggle.”

On Sunday, the 21-year-old Marquez will be aiming for an 11th straight win in as many races this season, which would be a MotoGP record.

Last weekend at Indianapolis Marquez became the first rider since Australian Mick Doohan in 1997 to win 10 races in a row.

Italian legend Giacomo Agostini won all ten races of the premier class in 1968 and the first ten in 1969 for a streak of 20.

After 10 of 18 MotoGP races this year, Marquez leads the championship with a perfect 250 points, 89 ahead of fellow Catalan Pedrosa and 93 ahead of Rossi.