Márquez, Lorenzo and Rossi dominate the warm-up sessions at Silverstone

The MotoGP World Championship got underway today at the Silverstone Circuit with the warm-ups for all three categories. The Moto2 riders were the first to head out on track, since remember that at this event the race order is swapped, and the intermediate-class race comes first, so it was time to get the engines warm.

The sharpest riders in the intermediate class have once again proven it in this warm-up at the British track, since Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró have dominated this warm-up by a wide margin ahead of the race, with the 93 setting the best lap of the entire weekend at 2:07.941, so Márquez is clearly in top form. For his part, the 40 also looked very strong, finishing 2nd in this warm-up just 0.055s behind the leader.

Márquez and Espargaró dominated this morning session, swapping positions every lap, but in the end it was Marc who finished from first place, with Pol right on his heels on the timesheets, and a bit further back the home rider, Scott Redding, but already 0.506s adrift, so a dominant showing for our side. The top 10 was Thomas Luthi 4th, Simone Corsi 5th, Claudio Corti 6th, Bradley Smith 7th, Andrea Iannone 8th, Mika Kallio 9th and Alex De Angelis 10th.

For the rest of the Spanish riders, the warm-up finished with Toni Elías 14th, Nico Terol 18th, Axel Pons 20th, Tito Rabat 21st, Ricky Cardús 22nd, Julián Simón 27th, Rodri 28th, Elena Rosell 34th.

In the MotoGP warm-up there were no big surprises, with the strong championship leader in this class, Jorge Lorenzo was the best in this warm-up with a time of 2:03.662, though without beating the pole position time set by Bautista, so it will be very interesting to see the start of the sixth round of the season at Silverstone.

Lorenzo proved to be the fastest, leaving behind a Ducati rider, Nicky Hayden, who despite his crash managed to ride quickly and slipped in between two of the favourites, so watch out for Hayden, who is up for it, sitting just 0.219s off the 99. Meanwhile the championship’s second-placed rider, Stoner, finished 0.290s back.

The top 10 had Spies 4th, Dovi 5th, Bautista 6th, Barberá 7th, Bradl 8th, Rossi 9th and Crutchlow 10th; we are very happy to see Cal in action after this morning’s medical clearance, but we will see how his race goes, because it will be a tough day on his home track. Not very good feelings for Pedrosa, who finished 11th. It seems that “33” tyre really doesn’t suit him at all, and he is not adapting to it; let’s see if he can find more feeling in the race. The remaining positions were Espargaró 12th as the best CRT, followed by De Puniet 13th, Pirro 14th, Hernández 15th, Ellison 16th, Edwards 17th, Petrucci 18th and Silva 19th.

The Moto3 category has left Louis Rossi as the best of the warm-up, setting a time of 2:16.730, while behind him Danny Kent came in 0.225s back, and the top 5 was completed by Sandro Cortese 0.248s back in 3rd, Maverick Viñales 4th and Miguel Oliveira 5th.

The top 10 was Masbou 6th, Vázquez 7th, Salom 8th, Rins 9th and Fenati 10th. As for the rest of the Spanish riders, the warm-up ended with Vázquez 7th, Salom 8th, Rins 9th, Faubel 12th, Moncayo 13th, Martín 14th, Moreno 30th and I. Viñales 33rd.

Now comes the important part, getting down to business in the race at the Silverstone Circuit.

Photo | MotoGP Official website