British Grand Prix Silverstone MotoGP FP3: Incredible Quartararo ahead of Rossi!

Even before this last 45-minute session allowing a possible live passage for Q2, the first day of the MotoGP British Grand Prix reassured all the competitors as to the quality of the new surface laid on the famous British track: now offering a grip acclaimed by all the drivers, the latter even made it possible to significantly improve the records in the 3 categories!

In MotoGP, it happened in two stages, since the honors first went to Marc Márquez before the commissioners returned his time of 1'59.225 to Fabio Quartararo, as well as those of Valentino Rossi et Takaaki Nakagami, also retired for a while for driving on the green paint in turn #6.

To clarify the situation at the exit of the curve concerned, the authorized zone has been significantly extended for this morning.

Finally, Fabio Quartararo, Marc Marquez, Maverick Vinales, Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Dovizioso, Franco Morbidelli, Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller and Danilo Petrucci are currently pre-qualified for Q2, while Jorge Lorenzo, back in business after his injuries, is experiencing a difficult recovery.

The weather conditions are still very favorable this morning, with ideal temperatures of 21 degrees in the air and 25 degrees on the ground, which gives us hope today for a further improvement in the times, which are already very fast compared to the references. past:

Silverstone MotoGP™	2018	2019
FP1	2'02.073 Maverick Viñales (See here)	1'59.952 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP2	2'01.385 Andrea Dovizioso (See here)	1'59.476 Marc Márquez (See here) 1'59.225 Fabio Quartararo (See here)
FP3	2'01.866 Cal Crutchlow (See here)	1'58.547 Fabio Quartararo
FP4	2'01.571 Maverick Viñales (See here)
Q1	2'13.340 Bradley Smith (See here)
Q2	2'10.155 Jorge Lorenzo (See here)
warm up	2'01.980 Maverick Viñales (See here)
Course	XXX (See here)
All time lap record	1'59.941 Marc Márquez (2017)

Franco Morbidelli leads the troop at the opening of the track.

With the exception of Marc Márquez et Miguel Oliveira, the tire choices are more “soft” oriented, remembering that Michelin believes that its entire range can cover the race distance.

At the end of the first round, Alex Rins is the fastest in 2'01.621 while Valentino Rossi gets a little scare.

On the next pass, the Hondas of Cal Crutchlow et Marc Márquez are in the lead, in 2'00.236 for the British driver.

The spearhead of the Tokyo firm, however, seizes the advantage in his 4th flying lap, in 2'00.152 then 1'59.972 two loops later, therefore ahead of Cal Crutchlow, Alex Rins, Jack Miller, Andrea Dovizioso, Fabio Quartararo, Danilo Petrucci, Valentino Rossi, Takaaki Nakagami, Franco Morbidelli, Johann Zarco, Aleix Espargaró, Miguel Oliveira and Pol Espargaró at the end of the first run.

In the combined ranking, fabio quartararo seems safe for the moment while Alex Rins is currently the only new driver to enter the top 10...

On resumption, Valentino Rossi climbs into 2nd position, 14 hundredths behind Marc Márquez.

Shortly after mid-session, Jack Miller seems to have a mechanical problem and shoots straight at turn number 7, ending up in the gravel trap without falling.

Takaaki Nakagami placed 3rd in the session and entered the top 10 in the combined ranking.

A quarter of an hour from the checkered flag, Cal Crutchlow achieves the new track record in 1'59.184, but the joy will be very short-lived for the Briton at home since fabio quartararo amazed everyone by posting 1'58.901 then 1'58.727 at the top of the ranking!

Miguel Oliveira, in excellent form since the start of the weekend, provisionally also entered the top 10.

Franco Morbidelli dislodges it and, for the moment, Andrea Dovizioso no longer appears in the 10 pre-qualified for Q2.

5 minutes from the end of the session, the Ducati rider improved his time and moved into 11th position.

There are 2 minutes left when Miguel Oliveira is positioned 7th and Jack Miller 2e.

At this moment, alone Valentino Rossi lit the first 3 sectors in red and the Italian champion finished his lap by taking both the best time and the new track record!

But in extremis, fabio quartararo leaves for a crazy lap and, at the cost of an exceptional 4th sector, once again improves the track record in 1'58.547!

Unlike previous races, Marc Marquez did not show serenity (change of bike for the last run which became too short). The solid performance of the Yamahas and what we can expect on paper (Quartararo for pole, Rossi for the race) is undoubtedly not unrelated…

MotoGP British Grand Prix FP3 standings:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com