2017 Silverstone MotoGP FP4 Result: Ducati Trips But Lorenzo Leads

It was back to sunny predictions weather-wise for FP4, the welcome sight of a nearly cloudless sky helping the premier class in getting some useful dry running done.

Marc Marquez gave his infamous hard tyre another good go and this time it looked like he found the patience to heat it up, not only proved through a lack or crashes but also by posting consistent times that placed the world championship leader at the top of the standings after the first run. Most riders seemed to favour the hard rear tyre in the hotter conditions, Michelin believing it offered more stability on the bump-filled circuit.

It took until the final five minutes of the session for Marquez to be removed from the top of the standings, first by Cal Crutchlow on the hard rear tyre, then by Andrea Dovizioso on the medium and eventually by Jorge Lorenzo on the soft.

Lorenzo was one of the few to try the soft rear on the first run and the Spaniard unluckily found himself stranded on the other end of the circuit on the outlap while finally on the hard rear. The Ducati man still got five final minutes of riding and begrudgingly went back out on the soft tyre so he had nothing better to do than get a headline out of it. And so he did, the Spaniard topping the session by over six tenths of a second ahead of his teammate.

Local boy Crutchlow was third, followed by Marquez – both riders sticking to the hard-hard combination. Maverick Viñales was fifth, the Spaniard finishing the session on the soft tyre, ahead of satellite colleague Johann Zarco.

The following places went to the unlikely Suzuki duo. Alex Rins was an early leader while chasing some world champion tail on track, the Spaniard quite keen on his young compatriot and getting a seventh position out of it. Andrea Iannone preferred to follow his own compatriot, leading Valentino Rossi in the standings after trailing him on track.

The top ten was completed by Danilo Petrucci, while Dani Pedrosa was nearly two seconds down on Lorenzo, in sixteenth place and surely with some concerns regarding Q1.

Results: