Honda, Suzuki, & Ducati Lead Silverstone GP Ahead Of Qualifying

The current series leader, and twice title victor, Marc Marquez accelerated his Repsol Honda up the leaderboard to be fifth fastest, 0.022secs quicker than last year’s race victor, Valentino Rossi, his nearest rival in the title stakes, though 53 points behind.

“And we have been having mixed weather conditions and coming through that rather well”, added the Honda man, who’s big points lead is down to his consistency and a more moderate racing style than in his barnstorming past. Fourth at Barcelona is his best race result in that string of five grands prix, with Suzuki and Vinales hurt in races by diminishing rear grip in hotter conditions and the rain. In the last years I was always quite strong in the wet, but personally – like the majority of the riders – I prefer the dry.

“We need to think race by race and just try to get the best results day by day”, the 2015 champion and Yamaha rider, a three-time victor here, insisted.

“I feel competitive, so the mentality is the same – push at the maximum and then we will see”, he said. Also with the rear it is the same, the soft provides good grip but it is hard for all the race and I need to stay a little bit much on the edge to make the corner. There’s first gear, 40km/h corners and then there’s some fifth gear corners, but I think you’re better off setting it up for the fast corners and the changes of direction, which is how I work on a Honda. Marquez, who had been a frontrunner in the session, crashed in the last third and sat the final few minutes of Q2 out as he watched on from behind the barriers.

Does that aggression help you keep heat in the wet tyres? I would have been maybe 15 or 16, and I didn’t race the track until a little bit after that. “I took the risk at the right time”.

A victor at Silverstone previous year, the Frenchman is gunning to become the first rider to defend the GP2 world title. I don’t mind the bike sliding. But they do a really good job of putting on a spectacle for the race weekend. “We can modify some things and I hope it will be dry for tomorrow, but dry also from the morning so we can try some things in the warm-up and also the tyre choice is unclear for a lot of riders”, said Rossi, speaking at the track.