Philipp Oettl has finished top of the times in Free Practice 1 at the British Grand Prix, with a lap time of 2:15.489. Aron Canet and Marco Bezzecchi completed the top three, whilst championship challenger Jorge Martin, still riding with a broken wrist, finished in seventeenth.
The track was dry and the weather was sunny but it was cold and windy outside this morning at Silverstone. The same session last year was topped by Canet with a lap time of 2:14.5, but this year Oettl was the only rider to break into the 2:15 lap times.
Oettl dominated this first practice, leading from the opening stages and throughout most of the session. He was knocked off the top spot by Jaume Masia, with Niccolo Antonelli and Jakub Kornfeil also leading at some point later in the session. However, Oettl took back the lead by over eight-tenths of a second with just a few minutes remaining. Canet decreased this advantage but Oettl still finished over five-tenths quicker than his closest challenger. It was closer behind the German rider though, with current championship leader Bezzecchi finishing just nine-thousandths away from Canet.
It wasn’t a good session for John McPhee at his home race, crashing out heavily in the opening stages of the session at turn four whilst sitting in fourth place. He did re-emerge onto the track but only with two minutes of the session remaining, finishing down in twenty-fifth place. The only other crash of the session came in the closing stages from British rider Tom Booth-Amos, current British Moto3 champion riding as a wildcard this weekend. He finished in twenty-sixth place.
Race direction are clearly taking a hard stand against riders exceeding track limits, with many lap times deleted. This could cause problems for riders over the weekend, especially in the race, if they aren’t careful not to take shortcuts.
Moto3 GoPro British Grand Prix Free Practice 1
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