Having ended the first half of the 2024 MotoGP season chucking his Pramac Ducati into the gravel while leading the German Grand Prix with two laps to go and thrown away the championship lead in the process, Jorge Martin came back from the summer break with blistering pace as the British GP weekend began at Silverstone.
A string of rapid late laps from Martin took him to the top spot in Friday morning’s free practice session on a 1m59.383s.
Pure pace has never been a problem for Martin, though. Turning that into smoothly executed races is the element he needs to get back on top of after watching what was briefly a 44-point lead over Pecco Bagnaia halfway through the Barcelona weekend at the end of May turn into a 10-point deficit just a month later.
It briefly looked like Martin would end the session with three laps faster than anyone else could manage, before Maverick Vinales improved to go just 0.090 seconds slower than him.
That left the factory Aprilias of Vinales and Aleix Espargaro second and third - no surprise given that bike’s usual strength on Silverstone’s fast layout.
Aprilia has brought its one permitted major aero upgrade to Britain, saying “more than 20 bodywork components have been modified or redesigned” in a package designed to both improve the downforce/drag ratio and increase the ground effect aero when at lean.
The currently jobless-for-2025 Jack Miller was an encouraging fourth for KTM (though he enraged Fabio Quartararo in a traffic disagreement as the Yamaha rider tried to put in a late soft-tyre lap) while Franco Morbidelli continued his recent strong form with fifth on the second Pramac Ducati.
Bagnaia was an under-the-radar eighth.
Pushing for a fast lap at the end of the session! 💨@marcmarquez93 has been dumped into the gravel at Turn 15 💥#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/X3GzuQzy2i
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 2, 2024
Marc Marquez was 10th after crashing his Gresini Ducati on the approach to Stowe late on, sending himself tumbling through the gravel.
Pedro Acosta also fell, though his was a less dramatic incident when he ran deep into the Brooklands gravel and looked like he might hold it and stay upright before nosing his Tech3 Gas Gas into the barriers.
