Quartararo outshines Rossi

SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom: Fabio Quartararo and Italian veteran Valentino Rossi shone in third free practice for the British MotoGP on Saturday with another Silverstone track record. The French star, at 20 years old, half the age of Rossi, had already posted the best time ever on the freshly laid surface at the famous circuit on Friday. And the MotoGP rookie on Yamaha’s satellite SRT bike kept the fireworks going with a new benchmark of 1min 58.547sec. Seven-time MotoGP/500cc world champion Rossi, on the factory Yamaha, pushed the youngster hard. With seconds left of the session the motorcycling legend known as ‘The Doctor’ topped the times only for Quartararo to snatch the spoils by 0.146s with his flying lap. Rossi was 0.220s clear of world champion Marc Marquez for Honda with the top six riders all posting quicker times than Quartararo’s effort in FP2. Marquez is well on course for his sixth MotoGP world title with the Spaniard leading the championship standings on 230 points from Andrea Dovizioso on 172 going into Sunday’s race.

Practice standings

1. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha-SRT) 1min 58.547sec, 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) at 0.146s, 3. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 0.366, 4. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati-Pramac) 0.456, 5. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati) 0.487, 6. Cal Crutchlow (Honda-LCR) 0.637, 7. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 0.751, 8. Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Yamaha-SRT) 0.874, 9. Takaaki Nakagami (Honda-LCR) 0.933, 10. Alex Espargaro (ESP/Aprilia) 0.982.