Silverstone, Great Britain

2016 Silverstone Moto2 FP2 Result: Lowes Leads FP1 Carbon Copy

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

Just in case the session planned to follow the rainy script of the morning run (and so it did), the intermediate class crowded the track from the very beginning. The initial traffic jam didn’t stop Sam Lowes from repeating his FP1 feat by taking over the top spot, almost a second improvement on his own time.

Takaaki Nakagami got quite close to the British rider, with Brno victor Jonas Folger in third, four tenths off the leader. Only half a tenth separated the German from Alex Marquez in fourth place, even less between the Spaniard and Tom Luthi in fifth.

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2016 Silverstone MotoGP FP2 Result: Iannone Hammers The Opposition

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

Similar conditions to the morning session greeted the riders post-lunchbreak, although Andrea Iannone only needed some ten minutes to set the fastest lap of the day. The early benchmark stood until the preventive shootout for a top ten place jumbled the order at the top, but a last lap rush got Iannone back in charge at the flag.

That bumped down morning leader Maverick Viñales, who still grabbed second position, three tenths off the Italian. Cal Crutchlow delighted the home crowd by briefly leading the session but the British rider fell back to third, almost half a second off the leader.

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2016 Silverstone Moto3 FP2 Result: Navarro In Fine Form

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

Much like a replay of the morning session, the overcast conditions saw the same suspects at the top, although they took their time challenging the FP1 benchmark. A solid late run from Jorge Navarro saw him beat that time by over a second, edging ahead of championship rival Brad Binder.

Even more significant was the gap of over nine tenths of a second over third-placed Fabio di Giannantonio, the rookie steadily improving to finish ahead of Jorge Martin in fourth spot. Enea Bastianini also improved slightly to climb into fifth, ahead of this morning’s leader Pecco Bagnaia.

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2016 Silverstone Moto2 FP1 Result: Lowes Beats The Rain

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

The dark clouds threatening the previous classes chose the Moto2 session to unleash, giving the riders only about fifteen minutes of dry track time, followed by another twenty of slow-mo shots and waves to the camera.

Homeboy Sam Lowes led for most of the session – which basically meant the seven laps before the rain flag came out. Thomas Luthi went straight back to business after recovering from his accident in Brno, the Interwetten rider finishing two tenths down on Lowes.

Alex Marquez also had a brief stint at the top but the Spaniard will be satisfied with a third position only three hundredths of a second off Luthi and a tenth ahead of Jonas Folger. Takaaki Nakagami sneaked into fifth, four tenths off the leader.

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2016 Silverstone MotoGP FP1 Result: Hurricane Viñales In Control

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the headline suggests but flags on the merchandise stalls were waving with more fervour than the most devoted fanclub could ever manage. That saw Maverick Viñales take a late turn at the top of the standings, the Suzuki enjoying the cool conditions to go significantly faster than the field, only Jorge Lorenzo within a second of his fellow Spaniard.

Marc Marquez was the early leader after the first run, the championship leader then becoming the first faller in the class, crashing into turn twelve on the following outlap. A change of leathers later, the Honda rider went back out to reclaim his top spot, before being bumped down to third.

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2016 Silverstone Moto3 FP1 Result: Bagnaia Braves The Breeze

Submitted by Zara Daniela on

With a very Silverstone-ish breezy and chilly opening to proceedings, the main contenders started strong, Jorge Navarro and Brad Binder switching places at the top, the duo joined and eventually overtaken by Pecco Bagnaia. The Italian put his Mahindra three tenths of a second ahead of the two challengers and over a second in front of fourth placed Bo Bendsneyder, a late surge from the rookie predicting another great weekend for the Dutch rider.

Jorge Martin added another Mahindra to the top five, while Fabio Quartararo had a more optimistic start to his weekend than last time around, finishing sixth, even though his track limits cancellation routine was still going strong.

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2016 Silverstone MotoGP Preview: On Championship Chances, Injury Risks, and Stupid Crashes

Submitted by David Emmett on

With seven races to go, and three to be held over the next four weekends, the MotoGP championship is entering a crucial phase. Marc Márquez' 53 point lead over Valentino Rossi means finishing on the podium for the rest of the races would be sufficient for him to clinch his third MotoGP title. The two caveats being that Valentino Rossi must win the remaining seven races, and Márquez must finish second on at least three occasions.

Márquez also has a lead of 59 points over Jorge Lorenzo. Just two second places among seven podium finishes would be enough to ensure he beat Lorenzo to the championship. Though once again, Lorenzo would have to win all seven remaining races.

A likely scenario? Not really. The chances of either Lorenzo or Rossi winning seven races in a row are very close to zero. The remaining seven races could conceivably all be won by a Movistar Yamaha rider, but the most likely scenario in that case would be both Rossi and Lorenzo swapping victories each week. An even more likely chain of events would be Rossi, Lorenzo, and Márquez taking it in turns on the top step. And if Márquez finishes ahead of either Rossi or Lorenzo, that swings the pendulum in further in his direction.

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Alex Lowes to Replace Bradley Smith for Silverstone and Misano

Submitted by David Emmett on

A week after getting his first taste of a MotoGP bike, Alex Lowes has learned he will spend two full weekends on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha machine, replacing Bradley Smith. 

Smith injured himself when he crashed heavily during practice for the final round of the FIM Endurance World Championship. The Englishman had been drafted in to boister the YART Yamaha team, in response to a request by friend and former World Supersport racer Broc Parkes.

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Silverstone Day of Champions Tickets Now On Sale

Submitted by David Emmett on

After several weeks of uncertainty, the future for Silverstone's Day of Champions has been settled. After the UK arm of Riders for Health ceased operations, a new organization, Two Wheels for Life, has taken over the running of the Riders for Health in Africa charity, and providing continuing support for their programs aimed at providing primary health care in Africa. 

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Spec Winglets to be Mandatory in MotoGP from 2017

Submitted by David Emmett on

Winglets are to be made compulsory in MotoGP from 2017, MotoMatters.com can exclusively reveal, using a spec design to be implemented much along the lines of the current unified software introduced this year in the premier class.

The decision was taken in response to concerns over costs spiraling out of control should all of the factories become engaged in a winglet war. The marginal gains to be had from increased spending on CFD computer modeling and wind tunnel work were a red flag for Dorna, who have spent the last seven seasons since the start of the Global Financial Crisis tweaking the rules to reduce costs and raise grid numbers. With the grid now healthy, and set to rise to 24 in 2017, Dorna and the FIM feared all their hard work could be undone, and teams would once again be forced out of racing by rising costs.

Though Ducati was strongly opposed to any form of intervention - which went against an agreement by Dorna not to interfere with the technical regulations for the next five season, the length of the current commercial agreements with the factories - they eventually gave in when the proposal for a spec winglet design by committee was put to them. Under the proposal, leaked to MotoMatters.com, the spec winglet would be designed using input from all of the factories in MotoGP. Those proposals would then be forwarded to a technology partner, who would test and refine them, based on the factories' design parameters.

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