Monster Espargaro lap puts Aprilia on top at Silverstone

Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro led the way in the second Friday practice session of the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, producing a monster lap late on.

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Key moments:

> Espargaro nearly seven tenths clear

> Six Ducatis, two Aprilias, two KTMs in Q2

> Quartararo and Marquez miss out

> Nasty crash for Bezzecchi

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Espargaro sat seventh as the chequered flag was shown, but produced a stunning effort – featuring a remarkable gain of four tenths in the final sector – to take over out front by a sublime margin of 0.671s.

SIX TENTHS?! 🤯@AleixEspargaro has smashed it! 🔥#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/IebnqdDUOR

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 4, 2023

The Aprilia rider’s 1m58.183s was just four tenths short of Johann Zarco’s all-time record at the venue, and came at the end of a session that was otherwise dominated by Ducati.

Indeed, six of the eight Ducati Desmosedicis secured their spots in Q2 on Saturday morning.

Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin had led before Espargaro’s late improvement, and wound up second, followed by KTM’s Brad Binder and Espargaro’s Aprilia team-mate Maverick Vinales.

Vinales had an off at Vale earlier in the season and seemed to be in some pain afterwards, but was back on pace in time for the late-session time attacks.

Lap record holder Zarco was fifth for Pramac, followed by fellow Ducati riders Pecco Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi – with VR46 Ducati rider Bezzecchi getting launched high into the air at Luffield in a highside crash that was a similar but more violent version version of Franco Morbidelli’s opening-practice shunt.

Disaster for Bezzecchi! 😮

He's crashed on his out lap! He's at the top but he won't be able to defend his Q2 position! ⚔️

Thankfully he was up and walking away 👍#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/lAc8AQPmvW

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 4, 2023

Jack Miller (KTM), Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) secured the final Q2 spots on offer. Like team-mate Bezzecchi, Marini had a crash of his own, falling off his bike at the fast Stowe corner.

Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo posted a last-second improvement while chasing a Q2 spot but came up a tenth short, albeit did narrowly jump ahead of team-mate Morbidelli.

Marc Marquez was the lead Honda in 13th – both Japanese manufacturers missing out in full on the top 10 – after tracking Miller (and Pol Espargaro) on his fastest lap.

Tech3 Gas Gas returnee Espargaro was 21st, 2.6s off the pace and three tenths up on LCR Honda stand-in Iker Lecuona. LCR regular Takaaki Nakagami was half a second up on Lecuona and two places ahead, having spent much of the day trialling a new Ducati-style aero package introduced by Honda.

Practice 2 Results