Bridgestone: Marquez obliterates lap record on way to pole position at Silverstone

Marquez was embroiled in a heated battle with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo for pole position, the pair trading the top spot until Marquez delivered the knockout blow – a 2’00.691 - on his penultimate lap.

Lorenzo’s impressive time of 2’00.819 secured him second on the grid for tomorrow’s race ahead of hometown hero Cal Crutchlow, who piloted his Monster Yamaha Tech3 M1 to third with a best time of 2’01.425.

Marc Marquez

Photo by: Repsol Media

Ambient temperatures were cooler today, with a strong, cold wind in the morning creating challenging conditions for the riders by affecting the ability of the tyres to warm up and retain temperature. The prolonged sunny periods helped maintain similar track temperatures to yesterday however, with a peak of 37°C recorded in QP2.

The softer slick options front and rear were preferred in the chilly morning session while in the half hour FP4 session just before qualifying, all slick options were utilised as many riders graduated to the harder slick options front and rear.

The preferred tyre combination for the time attack in qualifying was the softer rear slick paired with the harder front. The harder, medium compound front slick is likely to be the preferred choice for the race, while rider feedback suggests that both the softer and harder rear slick options will be on the grid as the lights go out for tomorrow’s race.

The twenty lap British Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 1300 local time (GMT +1) tomorrow.

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department: “We had fine weather again today, but this morning the cold wind we had served to cool down the tyres between corners, making conditions quite tricky for riders even though the track temperatures were similar to yesterday’s morning session.

Thankfully, conditions improved in the afternoon and we got to witness an amazing qualifying session and although we expected the qualifying lap record to be broken, the performance of the riders today in qualifying was unbelievable!

This is the third race in a row where we have seen a new qualifying record being set and it is always positive to see the softer rear slick deliver such strong potential over a single lap, while still giving good performance over longer runs.

The harder rear slick was also used by many riders in FP4 today and showed excellent consistency so rear tyre choice for tomorrow’s race should be quite varied. I hope the excitement we experienced today continues tomorrow and we get to see a close battle during the race.”

Bridgestone Motorsport