Lorenzo takes fight to rivals on day one at Silverstone

Jorge Lorenzo shot a clear message of intent on day one of free practice ahead of the Hertz British Grand Prix at Silverstone with the Yamaha Factory Racing man setting the fastest time of the day in the second free practice session with the Spaniard’s best lap of 2m 2.734s better than that of rookie sensation Marc Marquez (2m 2.958s) and his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa in third with a best time of 2m 3.192s.

The first day on the British circuit was also very good for Go&Fun Honda Gresini rider Alvaro Bautista who set a best time of 2m 3.463s ahead of Valentino Rossi with the Yamaha Factory Racing man setting a best lap of 2m 3.480s. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow had a decent first day in front of the home fans finishing day one in 6th position with Ducati Team rider Andrea Dovizioso in 7th (2m 3.658s) and Bradley Smith in 8th on the second of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machines with a best time of 2m 3.750s.

Stefan Bradl ended day one in 9th place for the LCR Honda setting a best time of 2m 3.784s while Nicky Hayden finished his first day in 10th with a best lap of 2m 4.089s. Aleix Espargaro had the 11th best time and was once again the fastest CRT machine for the Power Electronics Aspar machine (2m 4.145s) and he was followed into 12th place by the Paul Bird Motorsport machine of Yonny Hernandez who set a best time of 2m 4.476s and Andrea Iannone on the Energy TI Pramac Racing Ducati with a best lap of 2m 5.052s.

Randy de Puniet set the 14th fastest time of 2m 5.069s on board the Power Electronics Aspar machine with the Frenchman’s best lap good enough to stay ahead of Avintia Blusens rider Hector Barbera who set a best time of 2m 5.266s. Michele Pirro lies in 16th on the timing sheets with the Italian continuing to substitute for the injured Ben Spies on the Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati and setting a best time of 2m 5.438s to stay ahead of NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards (2m 5.484s) and his teammate Claudio Corti in 18th (2m 5.506s)

The 19th fastest time went to Danilo Petrucci and the Came IodaRacing team with a best time of 2m 5.657s while Michael Laverty finished one place behind today with a best lap of 2m 5.977s on the Paul Bird Motorsport machine while Hiroshi Aoyama set a best lap 2m 6.038s for the Avintia Blusens squad while Bryan Staring sits in 22nd on day one for the Go&Fun Honda Gresini team with a best lap of 2m 7.854s with Lukas Pesek ending the day in 23rd place on a best time of 2m 9.209s for the Came IodaRacing Project.

Lorenzo was satisfied with his first day of practice saying, “I started very fast because I improved almost one second and a half in the beginning; I was surprised with the improvement. At this track, when the rear tire starts to drop it’s very difficult to keep the same pace so we have to work hard to make a constant bike that works over long distance. I’m satisfied because I think we have the possibility to fight for the victory this time.”

Going into this weekend with four wins in a row under his belt Marquez was upbeat about his first day. He said, “I'm happy, because right from the start I felt pretty good. I was feeling a little uneasy about this circuit when I arrived, because last year I struggled a bit here and didn't know what was in store for me on the MotoGP bike. I tried to stay calm and take it slowly and, in the end, I felt very comfortable on the bike. Jorge might be a little stronger than us so far, but we are closer to his times than we had expected. Tomorrow we will continue working in the same way to further improve the setup.”

Pedrosa was happy to be able to try out the hard Bridgestone tire today due to the out of the ordinary warm temperature. “Today the weather was good and we were able to test the tire range out in the early laps,” said Pedrosa while continuing, “Normally here at Silverstone it's quite cold and we don't get a chance to try the hard compound, but today we were able to do that. There wasn't much in the way of a positive feel with that compound, because we lacked rear grip, but nevertheless we got some fairly good times with it. The goal for tomorrow is to improve grip and clock some faster laps.”