MotoGP Silverstone Practice LIVE: Aleix Espargaro alone in the world! Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez in Q1.

 The MotoGP machines were finally able to regain their voice and their riders returned to their handlebars after more than five weeks of rest to relaunch an exciting last part season which begins with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this Friday.

Before remembering the specificities of this one, the update on the current state of the championship shows us a Francis Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in a comfortable position with 194 points, 35 and 36 ahead of two other Ducati riders, George Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team).

Behind, quite far behind, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Johann zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) and Luca marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) maintain a small lead over a peloton in which we find fabio quartararo in 9th place with 64 points, Marc Marquez in 19th position with 15 points.

There are 444 points left to score (12 times 37), reminding us that most of the championship remains to be written after the summer break, and that we will have to combine competitiveness with endurance, with an eastern tour including no less than 8 GP in 10 weeks. In summary, everything remains completely open, but you will have to be very strong and not get hurt...

This second part of the title race still sees it set up a new weekend format, with a Friday consisting of a free session (FP1) of 45 minutes without stakes, and a session of one hour (P) directly determining the passage to Q2 or not.

Another new feature, to the great dismay of most Ducati riders, is the checking minimum tire pressure (1.88 front, 1.68 rear), effective from the start at Michelin, will bring sanctions from this GP.
For the tests, in theory this will cancel the time, while seconds will be added for the races (if the pressures are not respected during 30% of the Sprint and 50% of the GP), with a temporary scale during this testing period.
1st offence: warning
2nd offense: 3 second penalty
3nd offense: 6 second penalty
4nd offense: 12 second penalty

Finally, last novelty, the official website MotoGP.com was completely overhauled during the summer but, unfortunately, at the time of writing these lines it has not yet been finalized, starting with a recurring disconnection problem that cannot be resolved despite the deletion of cookies, unless you switch to a private connection...

It is in this context that we approach Silverstone and its expected very British weather... but which is improving.

Johan zarco holds the record for the 5900 meter circuit in 1'57.767, and, after starting from pole last year, led the four first laps before falling.

A revenge to take, at a time when his future at Ducati is at stake?

Note that MotoGP now uses different boxes from last year, those of F1, which changes the start/finish line and the numbering of the turns.

This morning, Ducati placed four bikes in the first four places with Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini, Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco, ahead of Jack Miller, Aleix Espargaro, Franco Morbidelli, Raul Fernandez, Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo which complete a top 10 which however has no importance, the direct passages to Q2 being decided now.

While waiting to discover more, at the moment when the 22 pilots (including Iker Lecuona which replaces alex rins at LCR) are preparing for this first decisive 60-minute test session, under a very gray sky since this morning but a track still dry accompanied by cool temperatures of 17° in the air and 26° on the ground, let's take advantage of these some live moments thanks to the official website MotoGP.com :

Silverstone MotoGP™	2022	2023
FP1	1'59.893 Johann Zarco (See here)	2'00.295 Marco Bezzecchi (See here)
P	1'58.946 Fabio Quartararo (See here)	1'58.183 Aleix Espargaro (See here)
FP2	1'58.254 Aleix Espargaro (See here)	(See here)
FP4	1'59.005 Johann Zarco (See here)	XXXXXXXXXXX
Q1	1'58.609 Enea Bastianini (See here)	(See here)
Q2	1'57.767 Johann Zarco (See here)	(See here)
Sprint	XXXXXXXXXXX	(See here)
Warm Up	1'59.227 Maverick Vinales (See here)	(See here)
Course	Bagnaia, Viñales, Miller (See here)	(See here)
All time lap record	1'57.767 Johann Zarco 2022 (See here)

When the red lights go out... Maverick Vinales is the quickest to take to the track while, as usual, fabio quartararo Let everyone go before rushing off.

In terms of tires, no one uses hard tires designed for higher temperatures.

At the end of the first round, Marco Bezzecchi is once again the fastest, picking up in 2'01.897 what he left this morning in 2'00.295.

Maverick Vinales then falls quite violently at turn #16 while Marco Bezzecchi improves to 2'00.539 then 2'00.025: that's it, we are already faster than this morning!

fabio quartararo there is a little warmth while Brad Binder took command in 1'59.889 with a soft rear tire.

Perhaps a strategy in anticipation of possible rain…

Apparently, Miguel Oliveira uses the same strategy and positions himself third, also with a soft tire at the rear.

At the end of the first quarter of an hour, Francis Bagnaia is placed in 3rd position, which gives us a top 10 made up of Brad Binder, Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnai, Miguel Oliveira, Jorge Martin, Aleix Espargaro, Alex Marquez, Luca Marini, Raul Fernandez and Enea Bastianini.

After this first run, Marco Bezzecchi et Luca marini leave with a soft rear tire, just like Johann zarco then 15th. The effect was not long in coming and the Frenchman jumped from 16th to 4th provisional position.

At Marco Bezzecchi also, this brings a notable plus, and the Italian lowers the provisional reference to 1'59.716 while Maverick Vinales places his Aprilia in second place.

Conversely, Luca marini pulverizes his Ducati GP22 at turn #15. Fortunately, the pilot has nothing.

As the last third of the session approaches, Alex Espargaro seizes the leadership in 1'59.694 and the hierarchy presents the Aprilia rider in front Marco Bezzecchi, Maverick Vinales, Brad Binder, Francesco Bagnaia, Johann Zarco, Miguel Oliveira, Jorge Martin, Aleix Espargaro, Luca Marini et Alex Marquez in the top 10, ahead Franco Morbidelli, Jack Miller, Raul Fernandez, Fabio Quartararo, Enea Bastianini, Fabio Di Giannantonio, Takaaki Nakagami, Marc Márquez, Augusto Fernandez, Joan Mir, Iker Lecuona and Pol Espargaro.

At the start of the last quarter of an hour, Miguel Oliveira grabs a place in 3rd position, but these are the two KTMs of Brad Binder et Jack Miller which start to light up the sectors in red.

The South African first recorded 1'59.680, immediately surpassed by his Australian teammate 1'59.567.

Johann zarco rises to 3rd place then Maverick Vinales achieves 1'59.218, best time of the day so far.

We don't stop there and the sectors are colored red almost everywhere. Alex Marquez positions himself 2th then George Martin 3rd. The two Yamahas join the dance, Franco Morbidelli fourth fabio quartararo seventh. As a result Marco Bezzecchi been out of the top 10 comes back with a bang and takes back command in 1'59.018.

Alex Espargaro moved up from 10th to 2rd place.

There are seven minutes left, the top 10 is made up of Marco Bezzecchi, Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales, Alex Marquez, Jorge Martin, Franco Morbidelli, Jack Miller, Brad Binder, Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco.

Marco Bezzecchi crashed four minutes from the checkered flag, doing a huge highside at turn #7. The pilot seems to have a little difficulty getting up.

Meanwhile, Francis Bagnaia achieves the best time in 1'58.973.

George Martin, then sixth, achieves 1'58.854 and dethrones Brad Binder who had just seized leadership.

Johann zarco reenters the top 10 in provisional fourth position while fabio quartararo was excluded. There's one more round left...

In extremis, Alex Espargaro places the Aprilia RS–GP at the top of the table, in 1'58.183, relegating everyone to more than 6/10!

Aleix Espargaro, Jorge Martin, Brad Binder, Maverick Vinales, Johann Zarco, Francesco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi, Jack Miller, Luca Marini and Alex Márquez are therefore qualified directly for Q2 and will avoid moving to Q1.

MotoGP British Grand Prix P (Practice) results at Silverstone:

Credit Ranking: MotoGP.com