Silverstone MotoGP: Marc Marquez heads first practice session

Honda's world champion set an early pace of 2m05.179s before improving to a 2m03.829s, with current points leader Lorenzo continually edging closer to him on his Yamaha.

In the second half of the session Marquez, who stuck with the soft Bridgestones while the Yamahas tried the extra-soft available this weekend, lowered the benchmark to 2m03.111s, briefly extending his advantage to seven tenths of a second from the previous half a tenth.

Lorenzo again gave chase, closing the gap twice in the final minutes but ending up 0.388s down.

Valentino Rossi was a lower-key presence at the tail of the top six until his last run, when he edged out the Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso for third.

A late flying lap from Scott Redding took him to sixth place and top British rider honours for Marc VDS.

He pipped Tech 3 Yamaha rider Bradley Smith to that accolade by a tenth and a half.

The second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa and Smith's team-mate Pol Espargaro both had long spells in the top three before falling to eighth and ninth as others improved.

Cal Crutchlow completed the top 10, with the Suzukis of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro back in 12th and 13th behind Danilo Petrucci's Pramac Ducati.

FIRST PRACTICE TIMES:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	2m03.111s	-	16
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	Yamaha	2m03.499s	0.388s	15
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	2m03.967s	0.856s	16
4	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	Ducati	2m04.072s	0.961s	15
5	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	2m04.115s	1.004s	14
6	Scott Redding	Marc VDS	Honda	2m04.170s	1.059s	16
7	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	Yamaha	2m04.313s	1.202s	16
8	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	2m04.347s	1.236s	15
9	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	Yamaha	2m04.364s	1.253s	17
10	Cal Crutchlow	LCR	Honda	2m04.413s	1.302s	15
11	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Racing	Ducati	2m04.659s	1.548s	14
12	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	Suzuki	2m04.728s	1.617s	15
13	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	Suzuki	2m04.816s	1.705s	15
14	Yonny Hernandez	Pramac Racing	Ducati	2m04.817s	1.706s	14
15	Eugene Laverty	Aspar	Honda	2m05.170s	2.059s	16
16	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	2m05.290s	2.179s	17
17	Loris Baz	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	2m05.403s	2.292s	16
18	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	2m05.956s	2.845s	16
19	Nicky Hayden	Aspar	Honda	2m05.987s	2.876s	15
20	Alex de Angelis	IodaRacing Project	ART/Aprilia	2m06.045s	2.934s	14
21	Karel Abraham	AB Motoracing	Honda	2m06.154s	3.043s	12
22	Jack Miller	LCR	Honda	2m06.478s	3.367s	15
23	Mike Di Meglio	Avintia Racing	Ducati	2m06.482s	3.371s	13
24	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati	2m07.820s	4.709s	13
25	Claudio Corti	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	2m08.286s	5.175s	15