Source: Supplied.

Ducati’s Andrea Iannone stood atop the timesheets on the opening day of MotoGP practice at Silverstone on Friday, leading opening session pace-setter Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) overall.

The weather was the focus of the pre-event press conference at the British Grand Prix and Friday’s changeable weather did little to disappoint the hype. Still, the rain held off and times dropped as the day went on.

With mostly fine skies threatening rain and only brief wet interludes in Moto2, FP1 at Silverstone Circuit saw the ever-impressive Viñales take the top spot, as the Spaniard took over in the last few minutes of the session.

Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was second in the morning, ahead of Repsol Honda Team rider Marc Marquez, who took a tumble at turn 12, but was uninjured. With the weather having stayed dry for the first session, MotoGP FP2 was also unaffected and saw all the grid improve their lap times.

Iannone led a lot of the second session of the day as the Italian machine’s power comes into its own once again on the fast 5.9km Silverstone track, with Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) just behind the Italian on the timesheets before the shootout began as the clock ticked down towards zero.

Viñales was the first to set an all-red sector lap to take back the top spot, before winner last time out Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) hit back and found some home form. Finally, it was Iannone who topped the session and therefore the day once again, with Viñales in second and home hero Crutchlow knocked down to P3.

Reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who is the most successful rider at Silverstone Circuit, was fourth in FP2 after having been second in the morning session, ahead of the only man to have beaten him in the dry at the venue – Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez.

Marquez avoided drama in the second session of the day with no further incidents, locking out the top five. Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was P6 on Friday as the Italian returns to a track he has traditionally struggled on in the dry, with Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso behind his compatriot in P7.

Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was eighth fastest by the end of the second session, ahead of Dani Pedrosa in P9. Local rider Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich) completed the top ten on the first day of action for his home round, after having also led part of the FP1 session in the morning.

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Jack Miller produced a typically gutsy performance to lap two seconds faster in FP2 during the afternoon and he finished the opening day on Silverstone’s demanding 5 layout in 17th position.

With only a few dry laps at the start of each FP session in Moto2, the race was on to make the most of the reduced dry track time. With the intermediate class getting the brunt of the British weather with rain in the middle of the first session followed by a repeat performance in FP2, although the majority of the field did improve their times in the afternoon.

It was Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) who got down to business first, as the former WorldSSP champion took the top spot in the morning and remained fastest after the countdown to the end of Friday’s track action.

Lowes, who has a good record at Silverstone and is in the title fight in Moto2 in 2016, kicked off his home weekend the way he will have wanted as he looks to get back on the top step. Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) was second fastest, with Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP) completing the top three. Aussie Remy Gardner (Tasca Racing Scuderia) was 18th.

Moto3 saw a few spots of rain ahead of the first practice session for the Octo British Grand Prix during the morning, but despite a rain shower that had stopped play in Moto2 FP1, the afternoon session saw a dry track host the lower category once again.

By the afternoon it was a similar host of names rising to the top in FP2 throughout the session, as Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0), Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Francesco Bagnaia (PULL&BEAR Aspar Mahindra) were initially the three to beat in FP1 and 2, before some late chargers saw changes on the timesheets.

Navarro eventually took charge on Friday as the pole man from 2015 took the top spot back from title rival Binder in the last dash of the second session, stamping some authority on the day following the recent announcement that he will be moving to Moto2 in 2017 with Federal Oil Gresini Moto2. Rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing Moto3) was third fastest.