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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP British GP: Aleix Espargaro tops FP2 as Marquez, Quartararo miss Q2 cut

As part of a format tweak for the remainder of the 2023 season, Friday’s second practice session is the only one that now counts towards Saturday’s qualifying.

The top 10 riders at the end of the session progress directly into the Q2 qualifying segment, while the rest go through Q1.

Aprilia’s Espargaro fired in a 1m58.183s on his final lap to see out second practice fastest of all, dethroning Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin.

Brad Binder completed the top three for KTM, while championship leader Francesco Bagnaia was sixth on the leading factory team Ducati.

As the Japanese manufacturers continue to struggle, both 2021 British GP winner Quartararo (Yamaha) and eight-time world champion Marquez (Honda) will have to vie for a place in Q2 in the first part of qualifying on Saturday.

FP1 pacesetter Marco Bezzecchi set the early pace with a 2m01.897s, before improving to a 2m00.025s over the opening seven minutes of the hour-long outing.

The first sub-2m00s lap came from KTM’s Binder eight minutes into the session as the South African fired in a 1m59.889s, which stood as the benchmark until the half-hour mark.

Bezzecchi was the first rider on his VR46 Ducati to go for a soft tyre time attack run and posted a 1m59.716s, before Aprilia’s Espargaro edged ahead with a 1m59.694s around 10 minutes later.

Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Racing Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Seven minutes later, the times started to tumble as the session fully turned into a time attack, with Binder kicking things off on his KTM with a 1m59.680s – which was immediately bested by team-mate Jack Miller’s 1m59.567s.

Maverick Vinales then took over with a 1m59.218s, having picked himself out of the Vale gravel trap following a crash early on in the session.

With just under five minutes to go, Bagnaia shot to the top of the order with a 1m58.973s, before Martin and then Espargaro lit up the timing screens.

The latter’s 1m58.183s put him a massive 0.671s clear of Martin, who in turn was just 0.044s ahead of Binder.

Vinales was fourth ahead of Pramac’s Johann Zarco and Bagnaia, with Bezzecchi seventh despite a nasty looking highside at Luffield in the closing stages.

Miller, Luca Marini – who also suffered a crash on his VR46 bike during the session – and Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez rounded out the top 10 to claim the final Q2 places.

Quartararo missed out by 0.127s at the end of a poor session for the Yamaha rider, which included a nasty compression moment as he changed direction through Chapel curve in the early stages.

He headed outgoing Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez, with RNF’s Miguel Oliveira 14th from Enea Bastianini on the sister factory team Ducati.

Joan Mir was 18th at the end of second practice on his return for Honda, while Pol Espargaro was 2.6s off the pace in 21st as he gets used to his Tech3 KTM again.

MotoGP British GP - FP2 results

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Speed Trap
1 Spain A. Espargaro Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 19 1'58.183   179.447 330
2 Spain J. Martin Jorge Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 21 +0.671 0.671 178.434 334
3 South Africa B. Binder Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 20 +0.715 0.044 178.368 334
4 Spain M. Viñales Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 14 +0.721 0.006 178.359 334
5 France J. Zarco Johann Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 18 +0.760 0.039 178.300 330
6 Italy F. Bagnaia Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 19 +0.790 0.030 178.255 334
7 Italy M. Bezzecchi Marco Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 19 +0.835 0.045 178.188 334
8 Australia J. Miller Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 21 +1.018 0.183 177.914 333
9 Italy L. Marini Luca Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 19 +1.063 0.045 177.847 335
10 Spain A. Marquez Alex Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 21 +1.115 0.052 177.769 331
11 France F. Quartararo Fabio Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 21 +1.242 0.127 177.580 329
12 Italy F. Morbidelli Franco Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 20 +1.271 0.029 177.537 329
13 Spain M. Marquez Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 20 +1.272 0.001 177.536 333
14 Portugal M. Oliveira Miguel Oliveira RNF Racing 88 Aprilia 21 +1.482 0.210 177.224 332
15 Italy E. Bastianini Enea Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 21 +1.510 0.028 177.183 334
16 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 21 +1.531 0.021 177.152 333
17 Spain R. Fernández Raúl Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 19 +1.543 0.012 177.134 329
18 Spain J. Mir Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 19 +2.174 0.631 176.205 329
19 Spain A. Fernandez Augusto Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 22 +2.359 0.185 175.935 326
20 Japan T. Nakagami Takaaki Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 20 +2.440 0.081 175.817 326
21 Spain P. Espargaro Pol Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 17 +2.626 0.186 175.546 335
22 Spain I. Lecuona Iker Lecuona Repsol Honda Team 27 Honda 22 +2.939 0.313 175.092 325
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