Kent, Rossi and Espargaró dominate the FP1 at Silverstone

The World Motorcycle Championship has started the action for the British Grand Prix with rain-affected free practice at the Silverstone Circuit. The first to take to the track were the Moto3 riders, who found a wet track and rain, although the latter stopped by the end of FP1.

It was a very calm session, without risks, taking it slowly and seeing how the circuit was evolving every minute, especially for the rookie riders, but towards the end of the session most of them pushed to close with good lap times. One of the strongest riders was Arthur Sissis, who is also celebrating his birthday today, so happy birthday to the KTM rider.

Finally, FP1 closed with one of the home riders as the fastest: Danny Kent set a time of 2:37.401, leaving Sissis behind by 0.674s, and being the only one to lap under 2:38. Behind them were Sissis and Vázquez. Efrén was one of the protagonists of the morning Moto3 session, as he rode fast and found himself in the leading positions. The rest of the Spanish riders placed 8th Maverick Viñales, 11th Luis Salom, 12th Adrián Martín, 14th Héctor Faubel, 19th Alberto Moncayo, 27th Isaac Viñales, 29th Alex Rins and 35th Iván Moreno.

It was also a free practice session with several crashes. Undoubtedly, the track conditions led to these accidents, among them Sissis, Khairuddin, Webb and Iwema.

In the MotoGP class we had a surprise, although seeing the rain we suspected there could be news in the premier class. And so it was: the Ducatis work very well in the wet because they are restricted and do not deliver their full power, which bothers the 46 the most. So in these conditions we could see the two Italian machines flying, and we were right: a Ducati one-two in MotoGP FP1 at Silverstone.

So Valentino Rossi dominated MotoGP free practice session 1, with a time of 2:19.328, followed by his teammate 0.070s behind, Nicky Hayden. Both Ducati riders were the only ones to lap under 2:20, good news for them as they feel comfortable in these conditions.

Behind them were Andrea Dovizioso 3rd, Casey Stoner 4th, Cal Crutchlow 5th, closing the top 5, while the Spanish riders placed 7th Dani Pedrosa, 8th Jorge Lorenzo, 9th Álvaro Bautista, 10th Héctor Barberá, 16th Aleix Espargaró and 19th Iván Silva.

There were also crashes in this MotoGP session, specifically Álvaro Bautista and Ben Spies, the Yamaha rider’s seems to have been a bit more painful, as he was taken to the medical centre with wrist pain, although fortunately he seems to be fine.

Below are the MotoGP FP1 times :

In the Moto2 class the fastest man was Pol Espargaró, setting a 2:23.503 in the final moments of the session. He had a scare after setting that time, as he ran wide at the end of the main straight, but he suffered no crash, so good feelings for the 40, who arrives a little physically hurt after his crash at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Taking a step forward in complicated conditions, although for Moto2 free practice session 1 the track was fairly dry, so they could ride more comfortably, and Pol did so, leaving his main rival so far, Bradley Smith, 2nd by almost three tenths. The third-placed rider, a great Ricky Cardús, is already more than a second behind the second-placed rider.

Furthermore, both Espargaró and Smith were the only ones to lap under 2:24, therefore setting the pace in this first contact with the British track. For the top 5 we had Scott Redding 4th and Mika Kallio 5th. The rest of the Spanish riders placed 8th Marc Márquez, 11th Toni Elías, 15th Julián Simón, 17th Nico Terol, 19th Tito Rabat, 20th Axel Pons, 30th Elena Rosell and 32nd Ángel Rodríguez.

Coming up soon is FP2.