With the summer break over, MotoGP returned to the track at Silverstone this morning for the first free practice session of the British Grand Prix. Yesterday Jorge Martin had assured that the incident on the penultimate lap of the Sachsenring was water under the bridge and one would believe him given how he started the weekend on British soil.
The Prima Pramac Racing rider led the session for a good part with his Ducati, finishing with a time of 1’49″383. If the rider from Madrid made the difference, it is absolutely necessary to keep an eye on the Aprilias, because today the new aerodynamic package designed to increase efficiency and make the bike lighter when changing direction also made its debut on the RS-GPs.
A solution that seems to have borne the desired fruit, given that Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro, winner at Silverstone in 2023, finished in second and third place. The rider from Roses has significantly reduced the gap from “Martinator”, approaching just 90 thousandths in the final, while the veteran is already further behind at 336 thousandths.
In fourth place, KTM with Jack Miller was seen again in the top positions and it is an important performance, because his 1’59″727 came with used tires. The Australian, who is still looking for a seat for 2025, risks incurring a penalty for having hindered Fabio Quartararo in the final stages of the session.
Behind “Jackass” there is a nice poker of Ducatis, which curiously are all ridden by Italian riders. Leading the way is Franco Morbidelli, followed by Enea Bastianini who gave the impression of being able to be rather brilliant in terms of pace. Then we find Fabio Di Giannantonio, first among the GP23s for Pertamina Enduro VR46, with Pecco Bagnaia in his wake.
The world championship leader closed with a gap of 465 thousandths over his rival in the title race and had started the session rather well. After a modification to his Desmosedici GP, however, he was no longer able to be too incisive and gradually lost positions.
In ninth place is the aforementioned Quartararo, even though the Yamaha rider is the only one to have mounted a soft tire in the final stages, so his time should be taken with a pinch of salt. Top 10 also for a Marc Marquez who seemed a little less brilliant than usual. The Gresini Racing rider also ended his session early, due to a slide at turn 15 from which he nevertheless got up without consequences.
A little further back was the other rider who ended up with his wheels in the air in this session, Pedro Acosta, although the GasGas Tech3 rookie’s was very “light”: he went long at turn 6, was unable to slow down enough in the gravel and then leaned against the air fences, but at very low speed.
Marco Bezzecchi’s weekend started once again uphill, only 14th, behind Alex Marquez and Brad Binder, even though Silverstone is a track he usually likes a lot. To find the best of the Hondas you have to go down to 17th place occupied by Takaaki Nakagami, while Luca Marini is 20th with his RC213V.
Between him and his teammate Joan Mir is the Aprilia branded Trackhouse Racing by Raul Fernandez. However, we are not mentioning the Spaniard for his performance, but for the fact that starting this weekend he finally has the 2024 version of the RS-GP at his disposal.
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