After a closely contested French GP, the Moto2 riders arrive at the Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix. Following his victory at Le Mans, Manuel Gonzalez has a 16-point lead over Aron Canet, who finished third at Le Mans. Jake Dixon, who is racing on home soil this weekend, has had a string of difficult weekends that have left him 34 points behind the leader, under threat from Barry Baltus, who is on the back of two consecutive podium finishes heading into the UK.
Before we begin, here is a table which summarizes the known facts:
|
Moto2™ Great Britain, Silverstone |
2024 |
2025 |
| FP1 | 2'04.021 Aron Canet | 2'02.599 Manuel Gonzalez |
| Practice | 2'03.602 Aron Canet | |
| FP2 | 2'03.433 Aron Canet | |
| Q1 | 2'03.570 Fermin Aldeguer | |
| Q2 | 2'02.940 Ai Ogura | |
| Course | Dixon, Canet, Vietti (See here) | |
| All time lap record | 2'02.940 Ai Ogura (2024) |
As he has become accustomed to this season, Manuel Gonzalez took the lead from the start of the weekend. Under the Silverstone sun, the Spaniard set a first benchmark time of 2:03.821, ahead of local hero Jake Dixon and Diogo Moreira. The latter were then within seven tenths of the provisional best time.
The championship leader then continued to lap, without improving, which was not the case for his rivals either, who remained well behind him until the end of the session. The American Team drivers were the first to accelerate at the end of the session. Joe Roberts thus propelled himself into second place, four tenths behind Manuel Gonzalez, while his garage neighbor, Marcos Ramirez, climbed to fifth place in the provisional standings.
Daniel Holgado did even better a few moments later, and now threatens Gonzalez's virtual leading position, from whom he is two tenths.
With six minutes remaining, three riders are shaking up the order of the day. Jake Dixon clocks a time of 2:03.410 to propel himself to the top of the scoreboard. He is followed by David Alonso and Senna Agius, who completely reshape the top three. While they are running at the same times, these riders are still half a second off the track record held by Ai Ogura, after a 3:2 attempt that earned him pole position for the 02.940 Moto2024 British Grand Prix.
While all of his rivals were improving, Manuel Gonzalez didn't give up and responded with a time of 2:03.277 to get back in front. He then went on to smash the former MSI driver's lap record, completing a lap of the Silverstone circuit in 2:02.599, eight tenths faster than Jake Dixon.
No one will be able to compete with this impressive attempt, considering it's only the first session of the weekend. The Spaniard therefore put in another demonstration on Friday morning, for the third consecutive weekend. Jake Dixon and Aron Canet completed the top three, while Barry Baltus had a discreet start to the weekend with the 3th fastest time of the session.
Moto1 2 British Grand Prix FP202 Standings5 at Silverstone:
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
