Marc Marquez clocks second best time and Dani Pedrosa third best, with both riders chasing Jorge Lorenzo.
With barely time to rest and after races at Indianapolis and Brno, this weekend sees the MotoGP World Championship head to Silverstone for a third event in as many weekends. The first two free practice sessions took place on Friday and, once again, the Repsol Honda Team riders played a big part in proceedings.
In the morning session, leader of the overall standings Marc Marquez again sprung a surprise, setting the fastest time of the run with a 2:03.816 lap. This was his first ever ride of the track with a MotoGP bike, but he was just over two tenths of a second faster than Lorenzo and Crutchlow. His Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, finished fourth –six tenths slower than Marquez.
In the afternoon, times were lowered by more than a second. Jorge Lorenzo was quickest this time out, whilst Marquez followed 0.224s. Pedrosa was 0.458s off the top spot. Lorenzo and Marquez were the only riders to breach the 2:03 mark today.
The second day of the Grand Prix of Great Britain will be held tomorrow and decides the starting grid for Sunday with an afternoon qualifying session.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 2:04.431, 16 laps, 94 km.
FP2 – 2:03.192, 16 laps, 94 km.
“Today the weather was good and we were able to test the tyre range out in the early laps. Normally here at Silverstone it’s quite cold and we don’t get a chance to try the hard compound, but today we were able to do that. There wasn’t much in the way of a positive feel with that compound, because we lacked rear grip, but nevertheless we got some fairly good times with it. The goal for tomorrow is to improve grip and clock some faster laps.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP1 – 2:03.816, 15 laps, 86 km.
FP2 – 2:02.958, 17 laps, 100 km.
“I’m happy, because right from the start I felt pretty good. I was feeling a little uneasy about this circuit when I arrived, because last year I struggled a bit here and didn’t know what was in store for me on the MotoGP bike. I tried to stay calm and take it slowly and, in the end, I felt very comfortable on the bike. Jorge [Lorenzo] might be a little stronger than us so far, but we are closer to his times than we had expected. Tomorrow we will continue working in the same way to further improve the setup.”
