Aleix Espargaro returned himself and Aprilia Racing to the top of the timesheets after Friday’s two Practice sessions for the British MotoGP at Silverstone.

The Spaniard shook out on top as MotoGP debuted its tweaked race weekend format, which sees Practice 2 determine which ten riders will progress directly to Q2, rather than combine P2 with the times from Practice 1.

Placing the emphasis on the afternoon session, Espargaro perfected his time attack in the closing stages to lead the way with a 1m 58.183secs.

He commanded a huge margin over the opposition too, Espargaro finding a gap to put some six tenths between himself and the opposition.

On the other side of that margin was Jorge Martin, the Pramac rider leading the Ducati contingent in second place, while KTM’s Brad Binder made it three different manufacturers inside the top three, just four hundredths adrift.

A strong day all round for Aprilia, Maverick Vinales on the second of the factory RS-GPs sits poised in fourth place, slotting in ahead of a trio of Ducatis, Johann Zarco heading championship leading Pecco Bagnaia and his title rival Marco Bezzecchi.

Though he progresses through to Q2, it was a bruising end to Bezzecchi’s day after a crash in the closing stages of the session.

He will be joined in the pole position shootout by Jack Miller, eighth fastest on the second of the factory KTM RC16s, plus Luca Marini and Alex Marquez.

With rain forecast on Saturday, those outside the top ten face a nervous wait to see what the weather brings in the morning.

These include both Yamaha riders, Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli, plus all four Honda riders, with Marc Marquez the best of the latter in 13th.