Ecstar Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales topped the opening MotoGP free practice session at Silverstone this morning, leading world champion Jorge Lorenzo by 0.282s with Marc Marquez in third but more than a second behind the youngster.
Marquez had to bounce back from an early crash to set his time of 2’03.653 after going down at the fast Farm corner, losing the front on cold tyres as he set about an out-lap on the Repsol Honda RC213V but he wasn’t able to break into the 2’02s.
Vinales and Lorenzo were the only two men below the 2’03s barrier, with Vinales going top with a 2’02.483 on lap 13 with four minutes left. He had a 1.080s advantage over Marquez until Lorenzo punched his way into second on a 2’02.765 after switching to the medium rear for his final exit.
Marquez went from a medium to a soft rear on the Honda as he switched to his second bike and immediately set a 2’03.563 on his first lying lap.
Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi, who makes his 250th grand prix start on Sunday, hopped into fourth with his 16th lap of the session, putting in a 2’03.591 with the updated chassis he tested at Brno. Andrea Dovizoso, who is carrying a knee injury after a testing crash at Misano, ended fifth just 0.046s behind The Doctor.
Pol Espargaro was worrying the top three early on but the Monster Yamaha man slipped back to sixth just ahead of Austria winner Andrea Iannone, whose works Ducati Desmosedici went pop right at the end of the session.
Dani Pedrosa, who was unsure yesteday about how he would fare this weekend, ended in eighth and one ahead of Britain’s Scott Redding, who led the session with a 2’04.192 with 15 minutes gone but couldn’t go much faster, ending on a 2’04.138.
Octo Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci, who was knocked off his dad’s scooter in Italy a couple of days ago, completed the top ten with Brno victor Cal Crutchlow in 11th. Aleix Espargaro took 12th place with Eugene Laverty, in probably his last British Grand Prix, taking 13th place.
Alex Lowes, who is standing in for the injured Bradley Smith, finished in 21st with a best of 2’06.25 but crashed at Farm, the same corner as Marquez went down.