Alex Marquez tops Friday with Silverstone lap record

The younger Marquez heads the timesheets with a last-gasp lap, Jack Miller displays eye-catching pace in P3

Silverstone roared to life on Friday as Alex Marquez lit up the timesheets with a record-breaking lap to top Practice at the Tissot Grand Prix of the United Kingdom. The BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP rider waited until the final seconds to unleash a scorcher—1:57.295—snatching P1 and a new all-time lap record in the process. Fabio Quartararo came painfully close with a brilliant 1:57.342, and Australia’s Jack Miller slotted into third as both Yamaha and Miller looked menacingly fast in the unusually warm and bright English conditions.

The afternoon started in chaos, with three crashes in the opening 15 minutes—Miller, Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez all hitting the deck early. The six-time World Champion’s fall at Turn 3 briefly halted any momentum he had from topping FP1 earlier in the day. Fortunately, all three walked away unscathed.

The session quickly turned into a battle royale, with Marco Bezzecchi, Joan Mir, Maverick Viñales, and Johann Zarco all having turns at the top. Viñales briefly led before Mir bettered him, and then a series of rapid-fire improvements from Di Giannantonio, Rins, and both Marquez brothers scrambled the order again. It became clear that a ferocious final run was in store.

In a dramatic last few minutes, positions shuffled at lightning speed. Miller jumped up to second before Quartararo took provisional P1 with an incredible final sector split, only for Alex Marquez to snatch it away right at the death, significantly one of the only riders electing to go with a medium compound front tyre for his flying lap. Behind the leading trio, Marc Marquez final flyer was only good enough for fourth, Bezzecchi finished fifth with an impressive late push and Fabio Di Giannantonio claimed P6. Francesco Bagnaia managed to salvage seventh, while Zarco’s early flyer held up for eighth ahead of Alex Rins in ninth. The final Q2 spot was snatched in dramatic fashion by Fermin Aldeguer, who knocked fellow rookie and standout performer Pedro Acosta down to P11 in the dying seconds—Acosta missing out by less than a tenth.

Ogura was a notable absentee from the action, with an earlier crash leaving him to sore to continue. The entire field remains incredibly tight, with Yamaha continuing to show Ducati-beating potential and Miller looking competitive at the sharp end.

Alex Marquez (P1) – “It was a positive day, with a solid work done by the whole team. We struggled a bit more in FP1, while in Practice, after a set-up change, we made a decisive step forward. There’s still a lot to work on and to improve, as we’re all very fast. The feeling is good but you can’t catch a break at this track; we need to keep our heads down.”

Fabio Quartararo  (P2) – “We can be pretty happy! Especially on one lap, our performance is good. We seem to have improved our one-lap speed this year, and now we’re working hard on also making our race pace a bit better. Hopefully, we can find a solution, though I think we will be quite okay here. I was riding with the new aero today, and I think it helped a bit. I also think there’s more potential concerning my lap time, especially if the weather is good. Having three Yamahas inside the top 10 today sounds really good. I’m happy that also Álex and Jack are there, and Miguel is coming back too, step by step. Normally, you don’t want to see your teammate being that close, you want to have the biggest gap possible. But to see them getting closer and closer to the top is something I really like. This means we have a lot of data to analyse.”

Jack Miller (P3) – “It‘s been the best Friday of the season for me and the team, a day where I felt fast from the early runs. I had a small crash early in the session, the bike had too much engine brake which I wasn‘t expecting, I clipped the curb slightly and went down. But the team in the garage did a great job fixing it quickly. Since I only have one bike with the new chassis, it was important to get back out there. I did all my laps alone, which makes the result even more satisfying. The pace is good and I feel very comfortable on the bike, the Yamaha engineers are working really hard and good. Have some more in the pocket for tomorrow, let‘s try to challenge the other riders and see what we can do.”

Silverstone MotoGP Friday Practice