2021 Silverstone MotoGP FP2 Result: Quartararo Limps To The Limelight

The cooler conditions ensured another rodeo show in Silverstone and Fabio Quartararo was the lead actor, the championship leader starting his afternoon quite dramatically with a slow tumble at turn 8. He was limping away after a hard rear tyre experiment went wrong but was straight back out on his second machine for the final half of the session and placed himself at the top of the timesheets with a small advantage. By the time the shootout came, the Frenchman extended that to eight tenths of a second and posted the first 1:59 time of the weekend. Jack Miller’s final flying lap reduced that gap to a still significant half a second, while Jorge Martin joined them in the top three after a slower start to his session.

Pol Espargaro looked like Quartararo’s main rival in the final time attack, before getting pushed back by the Ducatis, but the Honda man enjoyed his best Friday of the season in fourth position. Teammate Marc Marquez was more cautious to start the session after the big tumble in FP1 and was the last rider to improve his time but managed to climb into fifth, ahead of Pecco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro. Brad Binder also enjoyed an uncharacteristically good Friday up in 8th place and as the final rider to post a time within a second of the leader.

Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi also secured top 10 placements, with Iker Lecuona missing out by one hundredth of a second. The likes of Joan Mir, Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami will be looking forward to challenging that hierarchy tomorrow morning, the trio about a second and a half behind the leader.

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