British MotoGP, Silverstone – Saturday Practice Results

Fabio di Giannantonio receives a welcome boost by leading a soaking-wet Saturday practice for the 2023 British MotoGP at Silverstone which saw falls for the likes of Augusto Fernandez, Miguel Oliveira and Iker Lecuona.

Most of the fallers were caught out by the rear tyre sliding out, rather than the front. The rain is expected to continue for the remainder of the day.

Qualifying 1 for those outside the top ten on Friday afternoon, including di Giannantonio, Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez, will now get underway.

• British Moto2: Latest Results
• British Moto3: Latest Results

MotoGP returns from its summer break with reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia leading the standings by 35-points over Jorge Martin (Pramac) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46) one point further back to complete an all-Ducati top three.

A revised practice format from this weekend means only Friday’s second session will be used to determine the top ten riders receiving direct access to Qualifying 2. Opening practice now becomes a ‘free’ session, like FP3.

After being tested by teams in the opening eight rounds, punishments for breaching MotoGP’s new real-time Tyre Pressure Monitoring System will be implemented from Silverstone.

For now, post-race punishments will only be given if tyre pressure falls below the minimum specified by Michelin for at least 50% of a Sunday race distance and 30% of a Sprint race, and apply as follows:
· 1st offense: Warning
· 2nd offense: 3-second time penalty
· 3rd offense: 6-second time penalty
· 4th offense: 12-second time penalty

Pol Espargaro (GASGAS Tech3), plus Marc Marquez and Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) have used the summer break to recover from injuries and return to action this weekend – Espargaro for the first time since the Portimao season opener.

However, newly announced 2024 Yamaha rider Alex Rins remains absent due to his Mugello leg fractures and is replaced at LCR Honda by WorldSBK rider Iker Lecuona.

There have been eight different winners in the last eight races at Silverstone: Jorge Lorenzo (2013, Yamaha), Marc Marquez (2014, Honda), Valentino Rossi (2015, Yamaha), Maverick Vinales (2016, Yamaha), Andrea Dovizioso (2017, Ducati), Alex Rins (2019, Suzuki), Fabio Quartararo (2021, Yamaha) and Francesco Bagnaia (2022, Ducati).

Weather forecasts warn of potential showers throughout the weekend, especially on Saturday.

Marco Bezzecchi leads an all-Ducati top four during opening practice for the 2023 British MotoGP at a dry but overcast and chilly Silverstone.

VR46’s title contender Bezzecchi set the pace for much of the 45 minutes, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Mooney team-mate Luca Marini completing the top three during the middle stages.

Bezzecchi was then pushed down the order by the appearance of some new medium rear tyres in the closing stages, but Bezzecchi returned the #72 to the head of the timesheets by just 0.036s over Marini on his final lap.

Pramac Ducati team-mates Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco followed with Jack Miller getting his KTM spectacularly sideways under braking on his way to best of the rest in fifth.

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia moved to twelfth on his penultimate lap, then was frustrated to run wide.

In a change to the previous practice format, the Friday morning session has become a ‘free practice’ with only this afternoon’s second practice decided the top ten riders with direct access to Qualifying 2.

Competing in his first session since confirmation he will be replaced at Monster Yamaha by Alex Rins next season, Franco Morbidelli was caught out by a cold rear tyre and flicked from his M1 on an out lap with 15mins to go.

The Italian looked to have some aero fitted at the time and team-mate Fabio Quartararo then duly emerged with bigger wings fitted, which would be their one available in-season aero update. Morbidelli returned to claim seventh and top Yamaha, with Quartararo tenth.

LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami also has some new aero this weekend, a wide ‘ground effect’ style design of the type first used by Aprilia. Meanwhile, factory Aprilia riders Espargaro and Maverick Vinales had a revised update to their lower fairings.

The Repsol Honda team of Marc Marquez and Joan Mir appeared to use HRC chassis this morning, while LCR riders Nakagami and stand-in Iker Lecuona ran the Kalex.

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Marquez was the top RC213V rider, in 15th.

Taking part in his first MotoGP session since Portimao, the recovering Pol Espargaro was 22nd and last for GASGAS Tech3, 3.5s from Bezzecchi.

With the pits, paddock and starting grid being moved to the new Wing this year, a special practice start period was held after the session, which saw a fall for Enea Bastianini.