Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia finished ninth and eleventh, respectively, in Friday’s free practice for the British Grand Prix, the twelfth round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship, taking place this weekend at the iconic Silverstone Circuit. On a dry first day which saw asphalt temperatures that did not exceed 34 degrees, the Ducati Lenovo Team riders first tried to regain feeling with their Desmosedici GP bikes after the long summer break and then concentrated on the setup work ahead of Sunday’s race.
Twelfth after this morning FP1, Miller improved in the afternoon despite a crash in the first sector during his second exit from the box. As he reentered the track with seven minutes to go, the Australian made a final time attack, setting the ninth fastest time in 1:59.364 to end the day in ninth place, 418 thousandths off the pace.
Francesco Bagnaia also suffered a crash this morning in the opening minutes of FP1 after touching the white line with the front wheel of his Desmosedici GP. However, that did not prevent him from setting the second fastest time of the session and finishing just 27 thousandths behind fellow Ducati rider Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing Team). In the afternoon, the Italian rider posted the eleventh fastest time overall, 21 thousandths behind Miller.
Both Ducati Lenovo Team riders are confident of further improvement in tomorrow’s FP3 session scheduled for 9:55am local time, while qualifying for the British GP is scheduled to start at 2:10pm after FP4.
Jack Miller (#43 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 9th (1:59.364)
“I’m happy to be back on track with my Desmosedici GP finally. It was a positive first day, and I’m convinced I have a good pace for the race. Towards the end of FP2, I had a crash: the conditions were quite tricky because of the wind, I was too fast at that point, and I crashed. However, we managed to get back on track for a time attack and complete our plan for today. We are working on the basic setup and tyre wear to preserve them as much as possible for the race, which will be very long, with 20 laps planned. I’m confident we can do well tomorrow in qualifying.”
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 11th (1:59.385)
“It was a good first day here at Silverstone, even though I crashed this morning after touching the white line. Unfortunately, in the crash, one of the two front soft tyres we had at our disposal got cut, so we preferred not to use the second one this afternoon, although that compromised my time attack a little. In any case, we started on the right foot: we still have a lot of work to do, but we are much further ahead than expected. I am convinced that tomorrow morning we will have the conditions to improve further and have a good qualifying”.
