Marc Marquez made a blistering start to the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, totally dominating the opening free practice session this morning. The world champion was victorious in a titanic tussle with Jorge Lorenzo and the stage appears to be set for another head-to-head between the two, with Lorenzo second quickest in FP1.
Marquez looked ominously quick from the moment he took to the circuit this morning, opening up an eight-tenth lead over Dani Pedrosa with just his third lap of the session. Lorenzo quickly closed the gap to a quarter of a second but the championship leader was losing half a second to the Honda in the final sector alone.
The news wouldn’t improve for Yamaha when the riders ventured out for a second time with Marquez shaving seven tenths off his own benchmark time with a 2:03.111, leaving Lorenzo as the only rider within a second of him. Although Jorge would continue to chip away at his own personal best, a major gulf remained between the leading duo.
Valentino Rossi climbed to third in the closing stages of the session although the eight tenth deficit between himself and Marquez will be an early cause for concern. Andrea Iannone was fast throughout and finished the morning in fourth while Andrea Dovizioso matched his teammate on his final timed lap to go fifth quickest.
Somewhat surprisingly, Estrella Galicia Marc VDS rider Scott Redding was the leading Briton in sixth, fractionally faster than Bradley Smith on his Tech 3 Yamaha. Dani Pedrosa fell from his lofty early position of second to an eventual eighth with Pol Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow completing the top ten.
Meanwhile, there was trouble for British Moto3 star Danny Kent in his first session of the weekend as his Leopard Honda was restricted to a single lap due to technical problems, keeping him at the foot of the leaderboard.
