Aprilia Dominates Friday in Great Britain—Marco Bezzecchi Sets Fastest Time Ahead of Raul Fernandez—Fabio Di Giannantonio Finishes Third as Top Ducati Rider
On the practice day for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a new MotoGP lap record was set several times. At the end of the record chase, Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) was the fastest, ahead of Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia).
At 23 degrees Celsius, it was significantly cooler in Northamptonshire compared to the heat wave in Central Europe. Under these ideal conditions, race preparations were on the agenda as usual.
On the front wheel, the riders opted for the hard tire. For the rear tire, both the medium and soft compounds were used in race setup. Marc Marquez (Ducati) and Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) ran on the medium.
In the first run, Marc was behind his brother, who had been the fastest that morning. However, a mistake at Stowe caused Marc to lose ground. After the first run, Alex Marquez led the timing sheets with a time of 1:58.201 minutes.
Raul Fernandez switched from the medium rear tire to the soft for his second run and set a new best time of 1:57.779 minutes at the halfway point of the session, improving to 1:57.739 minutes on his next lap.
ON ANOTHER LEVEL @25raulfernandez BREAKS THE LAP RECORD AGAIN ⏱️BritishGP pic.twitter.com/OVcUvLRlYN
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) August 7, 2026
Shortly thereafter, Trackhouse boss Justin Marks, who is at Silverstone, celebrated a one-two lead. Ai Ogura also switched to a new soft rear tire and took the lead with a time of 1:57.628.
Marc Marquez also switched to the soft rear tire at the halfway point of practice and improved to third place on his third run. Alex Marquez opted not to use the soft rear tire during his race preparations.
Chasing Records in Qualifying
With 20 minutes remaining in practice, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) kicked off qualifying. Brad Binder caused yellow flags. He began his flying lap behind his KTM teammate Pedro Acosta and crashed at Luffield.
Acosta fared better and took the lead, though his name didn’t stay there for long. Alex Marquez initially set the fastest time, but his lap was beaten shortly afterward by Marc Marquez.
The stopwatch then stopped at 1:56.810 minutes for Ogura. That was a new lap record. For the first time ever, a MotoGP lap at Silverstone was completed in under 1:57 minutes.
Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) also clocked a time of 1:56.9 minutes. The rest of the field was still in the 1:57-minute range. Marc Marquez, Bezzecchi, and Raul Fernandez rounded out the top 5 after the first attempts.
Things didn’t go as planned for Bagnaia. The 2022 Silverstone winner was outside the top 10 and had worked his way up to tenth place. However, five minutes before the end of practice, Bagnaia crashed at Brooklands. His session was over.
Shortly afterward, yellow flags were waved again. Acosta had crashed at The Loop. It was already his second crash of the day. At that point, the KTM rider was in eighth place.
Session over for @peccobagnaia and he& 39;s sitting in P10 right now BritishGP pic.twitter.com/MUHqcEp9dm
— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) August 7, 2026
Raul Fernandez then set a new fastest time of 1:56.615 minutes, establishing a new lap record. But the battle for the fastest time wasn’t over yet. Bezzecchi clocked 1:56.280 minutes for the fastest lap ever at Silverstone.
This put the Italian a full second faster than last year’s lap record. The top eight riders all beat this previous lap record. Bezzecchi was ultimately 0.335 seconds faster than Raul Fernandez (see results).
Di Giannantonio, the first Ducati rider, followed in third place. He was already four-tenths of a second behind. With Jorge Martin and Ogura, all four Aprilia riders were in the top 5.
Marc and Alex Marquez were seven-tenths of a second behind and took sixth and seventh places. One Honda and one Yamaha rider each also secured direct qualification for Q2.
Joan Mir (Honda) finished eighth and Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha) ninth. One second behind, the final Q2 spot went to Acosta. Bagnaia was relegated to 13th place. This marks his fifth time in Q1 this season.
The final practice session begins on Saturday at 12:10 p.m. CEST, followed immediately by qualifying at 12:50 p.m. CEST. The 10-lap Sprint race starts at 5:00 p.m. CEST.
