Lorenzo strikes back at Silverstone

Jorge Lorenzo has responded to Marc Marquez’s first session time at Silverstone, by beating his fellow Spaniard back into second by a mere 0.033 at the end of the opening day.

However, it was Bradley Smith who had the home fans cheering, taking a provisional front row start in third – and only just failing to match the leading duo’s time on his last flying lap of the 45-minute session

Danui Pedrosa was fourth, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Aleix Espargaro, with his brother Pol seventh and the second Ducati of Iannone in eighth.

Scott Redding had a strong ride to ninth, running as high as sixth earlier in the session, while Valentino Rossi rounded out the top 10.

It was an under par performance for Cal Crutchlow, however, with the LCR Honda rider back in 15th, just ahead of the open class Aspar Honda of Eugene Laverty in 16th.

With good weather on the first day of practice and the forecast good for Saturday, it could be chaos come Sunday – with rain predicted for most of the day. With riders unlikely to get any wet practice under their belt, bad weather on race day could really put the cat amongst the pigeons.