Alex Marquez heads into this afternoon’s Moto2 qualifying for the British Grand Prix as the rider to beat after blitzing the field in final practice.
The Spaniard – who ended Friday’s running fastest of all – hit the ground running in the opening minutes of Saturday morning’s session, Marquez dipping underneath the 2m07s barrier for the first time this weekend with a 2m06.896s.
Championship leader and Marc VDS team-mate Franco Morbidelli ended the session as Marquez’s closest challenger, though the Italian was nearly four tenths adrift on a 2m07.364s.
Mattia Pasini was third fastest on Friday and once again completed the top three on his Italtrans Kalex, with initial third practice pacesetter Tom Luthi fourth at the chequered flag.
Lorenzo Baldassarri rounded out the top five on the first of the Forward bikes ahead of Tech3’s Remy Gardner, while Miguel Oliveira put the KTM into seventh.
Takaaki Nakagami was eighth fastest this morning, albeit a second off the pace, the Japanese rider edging clear of Simone Corsi and Isaax Vinales.
Xavi Vierge was just 0.034s outside of the top 10 in 11th ahead of Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Navarro, who fell at Farm Curve with seven minutes left on the clock.
Axel Pons and Stefan Manzi, who stunned on his Moto3 wildcard appearance with Mahindra at Silverstone with a fourth-place finish last year, completed the top 15.
British Superbike star Jake Dixon, who is making his grand prix debut this weekend as the replacement for the injured Marcel Schrotter at Intact GP, began his his second day in Moto2 31st on the timesheets and 3.8s off the pace.
