Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

British MotoGP: FP2 pacesetter Quartararo hurts ankle in crash

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo dominated FP2 for the MotoGP British Grand Prix on his Yamaha despite suffering a heavy crash and injuring his ankle.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The Yamaha rider’s session would come to a crunching halt just moments after he’d gone fastest, when he suffered an off-throttle highside at the Vale left-hander while running the hard rear tyre.

Quartararo was slow to get to his feet and initially needed to be helped away by the marshals as he struggled to put weight on his left ankle – though was soon able to walk unaided and find his way back to his Yamaha garage.

The overcast conditions from the morning remained for the 45-minute FP2 session, but the increase in grip on circuit meant combined lap time improvements were quick to come in.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro set the early pace with a 2m02.484s, before Quartararo edged ahead with a 2m02.447s.

While Quartararo’s dramas were unfolding, Aleix Espargaro managed to produce a Friday-best effort of 2m00.670s, before improving to a 2m00.467s.

Quartararo rejoined the session on his second bike with just over 20 minutes remaining and was soon lighting up the timing screens despite running a soft front tyre with more than 20 laps on it.

Quartararo took over top spot again with a 2m00.138s on a fresh medium rear, improving to a 2m00.132s with just over 10 minutes of the session to run before he returned to the pitlane.

In the closing moments, Quartararo’s lap time came under threat as most of the grid fitted fresh soft rubber for a time attack.

But Quartararo would put himself well out of reach with his penultimate flying lap, the Yamaha rider going eight tenths clear of the field with a 1m59.317s.

He would go unchallenged as the chequered flag fell, with Ducati’s Jack Miller ending up as his closest rival in second – albeit 0.512 seconds adrift.

Jack Miller, Ducati Team

Jack Miller, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Styrian GP race winner Jorge Martin made a late charge to third on his Pramac Ducati, with Pol Espargaro heading Honda team-mate Marc Marquez to round out the top five.

Francesco Bagnaia was sixth on his factory Ducati from a frustrated Aleix Espargaro, who had his final flying lap baulked by his brother Pol up at the Stowe right-hander.

Read Also:

KTM’s Brad Binder made a substantial lap time improvement in FP2 to a 2m00.315s to end the day eighth ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi on the Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Reigning world champion Joan Mir was 13th as he continued to learn the Silverstone circuit, with Johann Zarco on the Pramac Ducati trailing him.

Cal Crutchlow was 16th on the factory Yamaha, with fellow Briton Jake Dixon 21st on the two-year-old SRT Yamaha having found 1.3s on his FP1 time this afternoon.

Lorenzo Savadori continues to struggle with his broken ankle on the Aprilia, ending Friday last and 5.8s off the pace.

FP2 result

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 1'59.317  
2 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 1'59.829 0.512
3 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 1'59.939 0.622
4 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 2'00.035 0.718
5 Spain Marc Marquez Honda 2'00.051 0.734
6 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 2'00.102 0.785
7 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 2'00.219 0.902
8 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 2'00.315 0.998
9 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 2'00.392 1.075
10 Italy Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2'00.400 1.083
11 Spain Iker Lecuona KTM 2'00.413 1.096
12 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati 2'00.548 1.231
13 Spain Joan Mir Suzuki 2'00.725 1.408
14 France Johann Zarco Ducati 2'00.810 1.493
15 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda 2'00.870 1.553
16 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow Yamaha 2'00.882 1.565
17 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 2'01.058 1.741
18 Italy Danilo Petrucci KTM 2'01.405 2.088
19 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 2'01.412 2.095
20 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 2'01.496 2.179
21 United Kingdom Jake Dixon Yamaha 2'02.601 3.284
22 Italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 2'05.138 5.821

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation

Related video

Previous article MotoGP announces revised 2022 test schedule
Next article Marquez had to have eyes cleaned after massive Silverstone MotoGP crash

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe