MotoGP returns to the famous Silverstone circuit this weekend for the first time since 1986, before this season’s championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was even born. However it didn’t take long for Fiat Yamaha’s Spaniard to learn its new layout, ending the day as the fastest rider as the AirAsia British Grand Prix weekend got underway in cloudy conditions.

The Spaniard set his best lap in a time of 2:05.991 with just over 11 minutes to go, not long before the session came to an early end as rain hit the Northamptonshire track.

“I’m happy with our first day’s work here at Silverstone and I’ve really enjoyed the new circuit – it’s fast and fun to ride,” Lorenzo commented. “We’ve worked really hard and I’ve ridden a lot of laps in order to begin to understand every corner and every straight.

“Unfortunately it was cold today and the asphalt was cold too, which meant that without any reference points in the beginning it was quite difficult, but hopefully tomorrow and Sunday will be better. Then in the last three minutes it started to rain so we decided to stop.

“We made a good start and then step-by-step I improved, so I think we are in good shape for a good race weekend. We will continue in the same way tomorrow and aim for the front row.”

A winner here on a very different national circuit nearly a decade ago, Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) was second on the timesheet. The Australian completed 18 laps on his Desmosedici GP10, the final of which registered his best time at 0.142 off Lorenzo.

“The layout of the track is simply fantastic. It is great fun to ride and some of the corners are awesome,” the Aussie 2007 world champion commented. “Unfortunately there are a few bumps on the ‘old’ part of the track where the asphalt hasn’t been relaid but when they get around to doing it I think we can safely say it will be one of the best circuits in the world.

“We’ve worked hard on the set-up today and for the moment we are still looking for the right solution. The bike was a little too stiff for the bumps and it was difficult to find the limit or understand how fast we can really go. We’ll make some changes tomorrow and hope the weather is good to us.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), fresh off the back of a home podium finish at Mugello, continued his momentum as he timed in at just under four-tenths off Lorenzo’s early weekend marker. Frenchman Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) had set the pace at the start of the session and eventually placed fourth on the timesheet, fractionally under a tenth off Dovizioso as he displayed a consistent race pace.

Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) will be hoping to take advantage of the fact that this is a new track for all and the rookie was fifth. His first run on the layout placed him 1.259 off Lorenzo and he will take great encouragement from the session, in which he placed ahead of Mugello race winner Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa by almost four-tenths.

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) was only two-thousandths further back in seventh.

Top ten times were also recorded by Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing), Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), and the riders will continue their adaptation to the track in the second practice session which gets underway at 9:55am local time on Saturday morning.

Shoya Tomizawa took top spot on the time sheet in the first free practice at Silverstone on Friday, setting a fastest lap of 2:28.020 on a wet track as the rain that had started to fall lightly at the end of the MotoGP session turned heavier throughout the Moto2 hour.

The Technomag-CIP rider, who is currently second in the championship standings, was 0.582 faster than Australian Anthony West (MZ Racing) in the complicated conditions, with Xavier Simeon – who is substituting for the injured Yannick Guerra on the Holiday Gym G22 team this weekend – third at just over a tenth further back.

Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) handled the wet well to place fourth, whilst Alex de Angelis (RSM Team Scot) set the fifth best time before falling right at the very end of the session.

British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) got his weekend off to a confident start with sixth spot, and Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept) and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) completed the top eight. Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) was 22nd in the session, with third placed Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) one spot ahead of him in 21st.

In form and coming off the back of his first ever World Championship GP win at Mugello, Marc Márquez (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) was quick off the mark at Silverstone as he set the best time in the opening 125cc practice session with a lap of 2:15.835 on the new circuit.

Not to be outdone, his fellow Spaniard Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) was just 0.016s further back as he also displayed a strong pace, making himself the only other rider to get under the 2:16 mark in the hour-long session.

Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) was third fastest and made it an all-Derbi top three, with home rider Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) fourth and his team-mate and Championship leader Nico Terol fifth. The trio were all separated by less than a tenth of a second.

Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) have been impressive this season and they took sixth and seventh respectively. Another home rider Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) completed the top eight. The highest placing wildcard was Red Bull MotoGP Rookie rider Danny Kent (Aztec GP) in 24th.

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