Vinales, Dovizioso, Marquez lead warm-up
The downpour hasn’t arrived… Yet. The MotoGP field had the chance to run the Silverstone circuit in the dry on Sunday morning before the expected deluge arrives, with Maverick Viñales posting the fastest time of the 20-minute session.
The 23-year old Catalan continued to show the speed that led Marc Marquez to label him a pre-race favourite should this morning’s race run in the dry. After a session of impressive consistency, Viñales’ fastest time was 0.203s quicker than Andrea Dovizioso.
The downpour hasn’t arrived… Yet. The MotoGP field had the chance to run the Silverstone circuit in the dry on Sunday morning before the expected deluge arrives, with Maverick Viñales posting the fastest time of the 20-minute session.
The 23-year old Catalan continued to show the speed that led Marc Marquez to label him a pre-race favourite should this morning’s race run in the dry. After a session of impressive consistency, Viñales’ fastest time was 0.203s quicker than Andrea Dovizioso.
Whether the winner of the 2016 MotoGP race can translate that speed in the wet remains to be seen, however. An underwhelming showing in qualifying on Saturday suggests he could be in for a disappointing afternoon when the rain arrives.
Dovizioso was the only rider to get within half a second of Viñales’ quickest time of 2m 1.980s, with Marquez 0.570s slower in third. Pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo was fourth, 0.78s back, with home hero Cal Crutchlow fifth.
Jack Miller (sixth), Johann Zarco (seventh), Alvaro Bautista (eighth) and Danilo Petrucci (ninth) also showed strongly inside the top ten, while Valentino Rossi was more than one second (1.094s) slower than his team-mate.
Scott Redding was a promising twelfth while Bradley Smith, fresh from his best qualifying of the year, was 17th. The KTM rider suffered a fall toward the end of the session, but was unharmed.
