Aron Canet ended the first day of Moto3 action at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix fastest of all from Romano Fenati.
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda rider Canet began proceedings in fine fashion, the Spaniard blitzing the field in opening practice with a 2m14.545s, which put him almost a second out of reach.
23rd at one stage in the afternoon session, Canet leaped up to the top of the order with five minutes to go with a 2m13.320s.
His lead was not quite as comfortable in the second session, Fenati putting Canet’s fastest effort under threat on his final attempt.
The Italian only managed just 13 minutes of running this morning thanks to a fuel pump issue, and wasted no time when second practice commenced in hammering the laps.
Setting the early pace with a 2m13.783s, Fenati improved to a 2m13.421s at the end of the session to miss out on top spot by 0.101 seconds. Bo Bendsneyder completed the top three on the combined times.
Jorge Martin had been fastest at one stage in the afternoon session, though slid to fourth in the order by the chequered flag ahead of Gresini team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio and Austria podium finisher Philipp Oettl.
Championship leader Joan Mir had a fairly quiet day by his standards. The Leopard rider was only sixth fastest this morning and ended the day seventh on the combined times, 0.534s off the pace.
Ayumu Sasaki was eighth fastest this afternoon ahead of Juanfran Guevara and Enea Bastianini, while Gabriel Rodrigo just missed out on the top 10 by 0.134s in 11th.
Tatsuki Suzuki headed Nicolo Bulega and Marcos Ramirez, with home favourite John McPhee 1.3 seconds off the pace down in 15th.
British wildcards Tom Booth-Amos and City Lifting/RS Racing team-mate Jake Archer are making their maiden grand prix appearances this weekend.
The pair, who race in the British Motostars series together, put in a decent display in 29th and 30th, and just 2.5s and 2.7s off of the pace on the combined times respectively.
