Fourth place for Marc Márquez in Silverstone Practice. A direct seed to Q2 also for Francesco Bagnaia, seventh

• Alex Márquez tops the timesheets with the Ducati machine of the Gresini Racing Team, setting the new outright lap record of the British track

The Ducati Lenovo Team completed the opening day of action at Silverstone, the venue hosting the Grand Prix of the United Kingdom – the seventh event of the season. Marc Márquez, the quickest rider in the morning’s free practice, finished the Practice session in fourth position, with Francesco Bagnaia seventh at the chequered flag.

Following a small crash at turn three in the early stages of the afternoon session, Marc was the first rider to break the 1’58” barrier and was ultimately fourth, 0.360secs adrift of first place. Bagnaia managed to improve in the final minutes of Practice, making his way back into the top ten to secure seventh position.

The riders of the Ducati Lenovo Team will resume proceedings tomorrow morning at 11:10 local time (GMT +1) for the second free practice session, followed by Q2 (12:15) and the 10-lap seventh Sprint of the season, which will get underway at 16:00.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 4th
“The crash was my fault, as I closed the line a bit too much, but I must say that the medium tyre wasn’t performing as well as it was in the morning. There are still some adjustments to be made, but we’re not too far off Alex, on a track where I struggled quite a lot last year. The updated weather forecasts seem to indicate a lower chance of rain, but even if it does rain tomorrow morning, we’ll use the time to keep working – as back in Le Mans, the feeling in wet conditions wasn’t perfect.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 7th
“In the last part of the session, we were able to make a small step forward and I felt more comfortable. We’re working on making the bike turn a little bit better and improving corner speed, while reducing front-end lock. The bike–medium tyre combination doesn’t seem to work too well at this track, so we have to rely on the soft option, which doesn’t guarantee the same level of stability. Alex (Márquez) seems to have found something, so we need to look at his data to have an even clearer picture of how to move forward.”