Marquez quickest but suffers big crash in first practice

Marc Marquez set the pace in the opening MotoGP practice session at Silverstone, before demolishing his Honda late on in a rapid crash at Maggotts.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩 @marcmarquez93's bike is destroyed at Maggots after losing the front! 😱

Thankfully Marc was up and walking away! 👍#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/GgY0dWUXu1

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 27, 2021

The six-time premier-class champion was pushing for a late improvement when he tipped down approaching the fast sequence of corners, chucking his RC213V down the road and tumbling violently through the grass.

Speaking to a racer, he thinks that it was a little bit of cold tyres allowing the rear to move around on corner entry, which was enough to unload the front. Says the front corner is light there anyway, and even more so on the Honda

— Simon Patterson (@denkmit) August 27, 2021

While Marquez emerged with no visible injuries, the wrecked bike was left right in the middle of the circuit, necessitating a red flag with two minutes left on the clock. The session did resume after clean-up, but there was not enough time left for anyone to start a flying lap.

Marquez and championship leader Fabio Quartararo had traded the fastest times in the early going on a cold, ‘green’ track surface, before the former established a three-tenths buffer over the championship leader.

That held for much of FP1, with Marquez posting a minor improvement with 10 minutes to go to move up to a 2m00.941s – but his benchmark looked under threat in the final moments before the red flag cemented the spot.

Aleix Espargaro was second for Aprilia, having leapfrogged Quartararo, while Marquez’s team-mate Pol Espargaro completed the top four.

Jack Miller led the Ducati contingent in fifth, followed by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda) and Alex Rins (Suzuki).

Cal Crutchlow’s first practice appearance as a factory Yamaha rider yielded 12th place on home soil, the Briton finishing a second off the pace, having taken over from Maverick Vinales – who will have his first test with Aprilia next week after officially parting ways with Yamaha.

Moto2 regular Jake Dixon, who took over from Crutchlow as Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli stand-in, finished the session in the penultimate 21st place.

He was three seconds down on Marquez but ahead of Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori, who – walking around the paddock on crutches as he continues his recovery from a broken ankle – circulated at a distinctly gingerly pace throughout FP1.

An early dash back to the pits for @alexmarquez73! 👀

The @lcr_team rider loses the front at Turn 12! ⚔️#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/8rdyB8baOs

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 27, 2021

Aside from Marquez’s fall, there were two falls prior in the session, both coming at the Farm left-hander. His brother Alex Marquez tipped down there early on, while Jorge Martin had a very similar crash moments before the older Marquez caused the red flag.

Practice 1 Results