Practice report

MotoGP British GP: Bezzecchi leads Aprilia domination in Friday practice

Strong end to the day for Aprilia, with both its factory and satellite team finishing at the front

Marco Bezzecchi made a brilliant comeback from a collarbone fracture to lead a 1-2-4-5 finish for Aprilia in practice for the MotoGP British Grand Prix.

Having been unsure about his fitness level following a crash at last month’s German Grand Prix and a patchy run of form prior to that, Bezzecchi smashed the circuit record at Silverstone by almost a second on Friday.

Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura had appeared set to end the day in front after setting the first sub-1m57s lap at Silverstone, but first team-mate Raul Fernandez and then factory rider Bezzecchi were able to go faster in the dying minutes of the session.

Fabio di Giannantonio jumped to third on the VR46 Ducati ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin, with Ogura demoted to fifth amid the late flurry of improvements.

When the hour-long session got underway, Martin was immediately up to pace, lowering Alex Marquez’s benchmark from FP1 with a time of 1m58.692s. Bezzecchi moved up to second shortly afterwards, establishing an early 1-2 for Aprilia behind his team-mate.

But before the first 10 minutes were up, the younger Marquez went even quicker on his Gresini Ducati, finding just under a tenth of a second over his countryman. Bezzecchi tried to respond on his next flying lap, but fell 0.032s short of disposing the Spaniard.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

Alex Marquez remained at the top of the timesheets until just before the halfway mark of the session, when Trackhouse riders asserted their position at the front, with Fernandez and then Ogura going fastest in the field.

In the final 15 minutes, the entire field switched to fresh soft tyres, with Pedro Acosta, Alex Marquez and Marc Marquez all enjoying brief stints at the top spot of the timesheets.

However, it didn’t take long for Ogura to reclaim the advantage, the Japanese rider setting a blistering time of 1m56.810s just seconds later. It appeared Ogura had done enough to end the day on top, but Fernandez managed to pull something special out of the bag, demoting his team-mate with just a minute left in the session.

But there was one more surprise left in store, as Bezzecchi posted a 1m56.280s on his final flying lap to snatch the top spot from the Trackhouse rider.

Di Giannantonio denied Aprilia 1-2-3 lockout with third, while Martin jumped from 17th to fourth with two rapid lap times. Ogura was left in fifth place at the end of the session, just ahead of the factory Ducati of Marc Marquez.

Alex Marquez wound up seventh, while Joan Mir finished a solid eighth for Honda. The top 10 was rounded out by Pramac’s Jack Miller and KTM rider Pedro Acosta, the latter crashing at Brooklands with five minutes remaining.

Enea Bastianini (Tech3) and Luca Marini (Honda) just missed out on a direct entry into Q2, while Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) will also be forced into the first part of qualifying after crashing late on and finishing 13th.

FiP

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	20	1'56.280		182.383	339
2	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	21	+0.335 1'56.615	0.335	181.859	339
3	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	19	+0.398 1'56.678	0.063	181.761	337
4	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	21	+0.500 1'56.780	0.102	181.603	340
5	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	20	+0.530 1'56.810	0.030	181.556	341
6	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	19	+0.733 1'57.013	0.203	181.241	338
7	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	20	+0.750 1'57.030	0.017	181.215	337
8	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	18	+0.831 1'57.111	0.081	181.089	338
9	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	20	+1.042 1'57.322	0.211	180.764	334
10	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	19	+1.083 1'57.363	0.041	180.700	336
11	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	19	+1.312 1'57.592	0.229	180.349	339
12	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	17	+1.325 1'57.605	0.013	180.329	337
13	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	14	+1.411 1'57.691	0.086	180.197	335
14	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	18	+1.473 1'57.753	0.062	180.102	337
15	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	18	+1.487 1'57.767	0.014	180.081	335
16	I. Lecuona Gresini Racing	27	Ducati	19	+1.494 1'57.774	0.007	180.070	331
17	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	17	+1.636 1'57.916	0.142	179.853	330
18	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	16	+1.640 1'57.920	0.004	179.847	337
19	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	19	+1.718 1'57.998	0.078	179.728	331
20	C. Crutchlow Team LCR	35	Honda	16	+1.900 1'58.180	0.182	179.451	334
21	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	20	+2.042 1'58.322	0.142	179.236	341
22	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	17	+2.341 1'58.621	0.299	178.784	329
23	A. Fernandez Yamaha Factory Racing	47	Yamaha	19	+2.550 1'58.830	0.209	178.470	330
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