Silverstone MotoGP: Rookie Marquez fires FP1 warning shot

Championship leader Marc Marquez finished his first session at Silverstone on a MotoGP bike as fastest of the grid, outriding his fellow Spaniards to fire an early warning shot ahead of the British Grand Prix.

All three fast Spaniards led the session at one point, with Dani Pedrosa taking the lead early before Jorge Lorenzo led for most of the session. However, a series of fast laps near the end of the 45 minute session gave the lead to the rookie by 0.219.

Cal Crutchlow was able to displace Pedrosa to take third, only 0.009 off Lorenzo in second place, in a session where tried out both his old and new fuels tanks back-to-back. The new fuel tank, designed to give him better feel early in the race, has posed set-up problems for the local rider since it’s introduction.

Alvaro Bautista was fifth behind Pedrosa, 0.2 seconds ahead of Valentino Rossi in sixth. Bradley Smith was back in 9th, adopting his Tech 3 bike to a circuit he doesn’t know as well as some British racers, despite coming from only 30 miles away.

As usual Aleix Espargaro was top CRT machine in 11th, while the home team of Paul Bird Motorsport were 18th and 21st respectively on their Aprilia-powered CRT machined.

1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 320.2 2’03.816
2 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 314.6 2’04.035 0.219 / 0.219
3 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 315.6 2’04.044 0.228 / 0.009
4 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 319.9 2’04.431 0.615 / 0.387
5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 318.2 2’04.455 0.639 / 0.024
6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 314.5 2’04.682 0.866 / 0.227
7 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 317.3 2’04.838 1.022 / 0.156
8 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 315.1 2’04.958 1.142 / 0.120
9 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 313.2 2’05.108 1.292 / 0.150
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 314.5 2’05.313 1.497 / 0.205
11 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 300.3 2’05.525 1.709 / 0.212
12 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 313.0 2’05.708 1.892 / 0.183
13 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 300.4 2’06.150 2.334 / 0.442
14 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 297.5 2’06.262 2.446 / 0.112
15 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 301.1 2’06.305 2.489 / 0.043
16 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 312.2 2’06.319 2.503 / 0.014
17 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Avintia Blusens FTR 299.9 2’06.691 2.875 / 0.372
18 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 300.1 2’06.796 2.980 / 0.105
19 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 297.3 2’07.100 3.284 / 0.304
20 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 302.0 2’07.361 3.545 / 0.261
21 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 299.0 2’07.525 3.709 / 0.164
22 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 295.4 2’08.631 4.815 / 1.106
23 52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 290.8 2’11.036 7.220 / 2.40