Vinales fastest as Espargaro claims sixth in Silverstone MotoGP Warm-up
The main talking point heading into MotoGP Warm-up at Silverstone was whether Aleix Espargaro would take part following his monster highside in FP4, a question that was immediately answered as the Aprilia rider headed out on circuit with the rest of the field.
There was an early off for pole man Johann Zarco when the Pramac Ducati rider got crossed up under braking for turn eight.
Leading the way early on was fellow Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi, with the Italian holding off Fabio Quartararo at the top of the leaderboard.
However, Quartararo soon overhauled the impressive MotoGP rookie by setting a time of 2:00.119s.
Quartararo was then replaced by former factory Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales as the Aprilia rider set the first sub 2m lap of the session.
While his team-mate led the way, Espargaro was a full second off the pace in 11th position.
Vinales improved again to consolidate his advantage over Quartararo, but it was Alex Rins who instead became his biggest threat after jumping to the top with a time of 1:59.493s.
Determined not to lose out on first place, Vinales then set a stunning 1:59.227s - two tenths quicker than Rins.
Joan Mir then joined Rins in making it two Suzukis inside the top three with a time of 1:59.493s - +0.059s off his team-mate.
A promising Warm-up session for Vinales then came to an abrupt end when the Spaniard stopped at turn six, while Pol Espargaro suffered a fast crash at turn four just moments later.
