Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales was the man to beat in the opening practice session of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as he topped the timesheets.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, Vinales put a strong lap together to top FP1 at Silverstone displacing Honda’s Marc Marquez, who was fastest going into the latter part of the session before Vinales destroyed his fellow Spaniard’s benchmark by one second.
Jorge Lorenzo got closest to Vinales’ benchmark and looked to be back on the pace on his Yamaha YZR-M1 after a run of difficult races which has seen the reigning MotoGP champion drop to third in the championship. He was second fastest, three-tenths off Vinales’ benchmark.
It was not all plain sailing for Marquez after the current MotoGP championship leader crashed at Farm corner which also caught out Avintia’s Hector Barbera and debutant Alex Lowes, who has replaced Bradley Smith at Tech 3 for this weekend’s round.
Valentino Rossi was fourth fastest, at a circuit which he won at in 2015, ending FP1 ahead of fellow Italian Andrea Dovizioso.
Pol Espargaro was sixth fastest ahead of the second Ducati of Andrea Iannone. Dani Pedrosa rounded out the top eight.
The Pramac duo of Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci completed the top 10 whilst Brno winner Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda was 11th fastest.
