PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Jorge Lorenzo was smiling and winking after today’s second free practice at Silverstone, the site of Sunday’s Hertz British Grand Prix. And with good reason. At the point where the factory Yamaha rider needs to win in order to salvage his championship aspirations, he ended up on top of the timesheets for the day – and under his own race record from a year ago.
Lorenzo chopped 1.3 seconds from his best lap in this morning’s opening session this afternoon, the Spaniard leading the day with his 2:02.734. More importantly he led championship leader Marc Marquez by .224 of a second, the Repsol Honda phenom ending up second best. Lorenzo was also .458 of a second ahead of Dani Pedrosa, the other man who sits in front of him in the championship chase.
With seven rounds left in the championship, Lorenzo trails Marquez by 44 points. It’s put up or shut up time.
And today Lorenzo definitely put up. After ending the first session behind Marquez, Lorenzo was all business this afternoon and he turned the tables on his young rival, improving by 1.3 seconds while Marquez improved by .858 of a second.
Pedrosa was fourth this morning and third this afternoon as British hopeful Cal Crutchlow as the one who suffered in the afternoon session, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man dropping from third to sixth as his half a second improvement wasn’t as much as his rivals.
Alvaro Bautista jumped up a spot to fourth in the afternoon session, the Go&Fun Honda rider just .017 ahead of Valentino Rossi in fifth. Six went to Crutchlow with Marlboro Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso making big gains to jump from 10th to seventh.
Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith ended the day eighth with LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl ninth and Nicky Hayden 10th on the second factory Ducati.
Colin Edwards completed day one in 17th on the NGM Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki CRT bike.
Free Practice 2
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2:02.734
2. Marc Marquez (Honda) 2:02.958
3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 2:03.192
4. Alvaro Bautista (Honda) 2:03.463
5. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2:03.480
6. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2:03.505
7. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 2:03.658
8. Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 2:03.750
9. Stefan Bradl (Honda) 2:03.784
10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2:04.089
17. Colin Edwards (FTR-Kawasaki) 2:05.484
