Marc Marquez has taken pole position for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, and broken the lap record in the process.
Jorge Lorenzo will start from 2nd but will be a tough man to beat come race day.
Dani Pedrosa leaves his pit box to start his 2nd qualifying run. He will start the race from the outside of the front row.
Silverstone was Silverstone on Friday. It pulled its many underhand tricks out of its sleeve, and threw everything it had at the riders, with the exception of rain. Cool in the morning, warm and sunny in the afternoon, with occasional cloud cover to drop the track temperature.
High winds, gusting in a few corners where it was trying to lift the bikes and throw them off line. And bumps galore, short ones, long ones, moved around the circuit since the last time the MotoGP riders were here, forcing them to recalibrate their memories, and pick new lines through the corners they thought they knew.
The ever eloquent Bradley Smith explained: “I’m not too worried about bumps coming from my motocross background it is not something I worry about, it might be something some of the other guys are more scared about, but it doesn’t really effect me.”
“It does seem to be quite bad going into the first corner Copse it is quite bad still and there is a nasty one into Stowe at the end of Hanger Straight. Still the braking point at Vale chicane is still like rollers into there. And for Abbey that one is really, really bad there is one in the middle of the corner which always makes the front tuck.”
The wind was not much better. “It is certainly bad. In a few places you have to make sure you get your body in the right place and get a little bit on the rear brake to keep the front wheel down.”
“I see a lot of guys drilling holes in the fairing but for some reason, especially me with my style and the way it is working at the moment I don’t feel it is causing any problems I can still turn into the wind. It is picking up the front a little bit in the exit but I can commit into the corner okay.”
Jorge Lorenzo returns to his pit box at the end of FP2.
Marc Marquez was 2nd quickest, only 0.033 seconds behind Lorenzo’s best time.
Bradley Smith was flying the flag for British fans on day one at Silverstone finishing, with the 3rd fastest time.
The boys are in Silverstone this weekend, for the British GP. On the mics for this episode are David (MotoMatters), Neil (Road Racing World and Crash.net), and Tony (Asphalt & Rubber and BikeSportNews), and they discuss the contract happenings in the paddock, the view for 2016, and who they favor on Sunday.
As you can imagine, the boys are keen on the British riders this episode – as it’s the Brits’ home round, and the PPP crew all hail from island nations in the North Sea.
We think you’ll enjoy this episode (see who gets their predictions right for Sunday), as we continue to refine this new venture of ours.
The Irish budget airline Ryanair gained something of a reputation for being, shall we say, creative with the names of the airports it flies to.
Fancy a trip to Sweden? They will fly you to Stockholm Skavsta, a mere 100 km from the city of Stockholm. The same trick is played out time and time again: Paris Beauvais? Beauvais is a charming French city, and well worth a visit, but it is very long way from the French capital. Munich West (Memmingen)? 112 km west of the Bavarian capital.
So perhaps we should call this British GP the Ryanair MotoGP round. Officially, it is being run by the Circuit of Wales, located in Ebbw Vale, South Wales.
Yet the race is to be run around the Silverstone circuit, nearly 200 km further East. Close, it is not. How did it end up at Silverstone? Thereby hangs a long and convoluted tail.
First, it was Bradley Smith, today it is Cal Crutchlow. On Wednesday, the LCR Honda team announced that Cal Crutchlow will be riding with the team for two more seasons. The deal will see Crutchlow staying with LCR for 2016, giving him an option to stay on for 2017 as well.
Crutchlow’s deal has been a long time coming. Talks were started as early as Barcelona, with Crutchlow looking for a two-year extension with LCR.
Honda was keen to keep Crutchlow within the ranks, as the Englishman has been able to provide valuable feedback to HRC for the RC213V.
With Honda having taken a wrong path for this season, having an extra rider to provide development input has been important. Crutchlow’s results have been solid this year, including a podium at Argentina, though he has also found himself in the gravel a number of times.
Bradley Smith has signed on for another season with the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team. The British rider has extended his contract, and will continue to ride for the team in 2016.
The announcement and its timing had been widely expected, coming as it does just days before the start of the British round of MotoGP at Silverstone.
Smith had made it clear since before the summer break that he wanted to stay with Tech 3, but the contract took longer to put together than hoped.
Smith spoke of his frustration about the situation at Indianapolis, though by Brno, some progress appeared to have been made. The deal was finalized shortly after the Czech round of MotoGP, just in time to be announced at his home race.
Within a day of the announcement that the British round of MotoGP would not be held at Donington Park comes confirmation that the race will be held at Silverstone.
The ending of the relationship between Donington and the Circuit of Wales meant that a replacement venue had to be found at short notice, and with only Silverstone currently capable of hosting a MotoGP round, the deal was quickly arranged.
The British round of MotoGP will not this year take place at Donington Park. In a shock statement, Donington Park announced it was breaking off its partnership with the Circuit of Wales to host the British GP.
In the statement, Donington claimed that it had not received the funding promised to it by the Circuit of Wales, which was needed to perform the upgrades required for MotoGP.
With no money forthcoming, Donington had no choice but to break the contract, leaving the British round of MotoGP without a home, at least temporarily.
Reports on the Motorcycle News website suggest that Silverstone will host the British race instead, with senior staff from the circuit having spoken to Dorna in Barcelona last week.
After a break of several weeks following Sachsenring I was ready to get going again and was really looking forward to my trip to the States for the Indianapolis Grand Prix.
I decided when looking for flights that I wanted to travel via Dublin. When flying to the States from Dublin, you clear US Immigration on the way out of Dublin. Some friends of mine travelled this way last year and had said it was a much better experience. No immigration queues on arrival which is particular beneficial if you have to catch a connecting flight.
Having booked my flight I was faced with a problem. The airlines connecting the Isle of Man with Dublin had a very small hand luggage allowance. I was not going to be able to bring my camera gear as carry-on and there was no way I was going to check it. I was left with no choice but to travel to Dublin by ferry.
Traveling by ferry would not normally be my first choice, I’m not blest with the best see legs. However, it turned out to be a refreshing change and I enjoyed the journey. I don’t think I’d be saying the same thing if I was traveling by ferry during the winter months though.
My flight out of Dublin wasn’t until the next day so a few pints of Guinness in Temple Bar with a bit of diddle dee seamed the ideal way to spend the afternoon.