Silverstone MotoGP: Marc Marquez fastest as Cal Crutchlow crashes

The Spaniard hit the front early on and, after briefly trading fastest laps with Jorge Lorenzo and Stefan Bradl, settled issues when he got down to a 2m02.485s.

Lorenzo also improved on his sub-lap-record Friday pace to end the session in second, just over one tenth of a second down on Marquez.

He was the only Yamaha man to make the top five, with Valentino Rossi down in sixth and Cal Crutchlow suffering a disastrous, crash-hit session.

The Briton suffered a huge crash in the opening minutes at Maggotts, writing off his Tech 3 bike and prompting a visit to the medical centre.

He was passed clear to return to action at the halfway point and slowly worked his way back up to speed, only to drop his bike again at Vale as the session ticked into the final minutes.

Dani Pedrosa was also a conspicuous absentee from the top order - he ended the session 10th overall - but his session was at least devoid of any of Crutchlow's dramas.

In his absence it was LCR Honda's Bradl who carried the fight to factory Honda and Yamaha men Marquez and Lorenzo, ending within two tenths of a second of the pair.

Honda had another top four representative in the shape of Gresini's Alvaro Bautista, while Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso beat Rossi to fifth.

Aleix Espargaro once again set the CRT pace, finishing directly ahead of Pedrosa and Bradley Smith in ninth.

Smith failed to crack the combined practice top 12 and will have to compete in the first Q1 shootout.

Michael Laverty, the third Briton on the grid, joined Crutchlow in the gravel, with PBM team-mate Yonny Hernandez also crashing twice.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 2m02.485s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                2m02.654s  +0.169s
 3.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             2m02.673s  +0.188s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         2m02.773s  +0.288s
 5.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                2m03.213s  +0.728s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                2m03.285s  +0.800s
 7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                2m03.378s  +0.893s
 8.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m03.403s  +0.918s
 9.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         2m03.464s  +0.979s
10.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 2m03.581s  +1.096s
11.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m03.892s  +1.407s
12.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         2m04.073s  +1.588s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m04.542s  +2.057s
14.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m04.620s  +2.135s
15.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         2m04.781s  +2.296s
16.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         2m05.441s  +2.956s
17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m05.609s  +3.124s
18.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m05.844s  +3.359s
19.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m05.893s  +3.408s
20.  Yonny Hernandez   PBM Aprilia           2m06.391s  +3.906s
21.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           2m06.752s  +4.267s
22.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m08.125s  +5.640s
23.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m08.178s  +5.693s