Silverstone (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Valentino Rossi, 40, and Fabio Quartararo, who is half his age, got off to a flying start in the third practice session of Britain's motorcycle GP on Saturday, with the Frenchman getting the best on his illustrious elder.

Quartararo, on the Yamaha SRT satellite team, opened hostilities by further improving its Silverstone track record the day before. But the six-time Italian world champion on the back of an official Yamaha immediately reacted by turning even faster. It is finally the Nice who, for his first season in queen category, took again his good with a spectacular 1 min 58 sec 547 / 1000e ahead Rossi of 146 / 1000e.

Behind, the current leader of the world championship, the Spaniard Marc Marquez (Honda) is relegated to 366 / 1000e ahead of the Australian Jack Miller on a semi-official Ducati.

The qualifying practice of this 12th round of the MotoGP championship takes place from 15:35 (13:35 GMT), preceded by the Q1.

According to the current MotoGP system, drivers who have achieved the top ten times in the first three free practice sessions participate directly in the qualifying session on Saturday (Q2), which determines the order of the first 12 places on the starting grid. The other drivers must participate in a qualifying session (Q1) and the two fastest times are drafted for Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), currently 2nd in the championship, will try to take advantage of this "repêchage" to access the Q2, having achieved only the 14th time combined three free practice sessions just like Alex Rins (Suzuki), 4th in the championship, but only 11th at Silverstone.

Jorge Lorenzo, teammate of Marquez at Honda, will also be in Q2 after having achieved the 22nd and last time. Absent for four races after suffering a vertebral injury at the Dutch GP at the end of June, he seems to be struggling to recover.

As for the other French, Johann Zarco (KTM) achieved the 15th combined time and Sylvain Guintoli - who replaces the injured Joan Mir holder, at Suzuki- the 19th.

. Combined ranking of the three free practice sessions of the British Grand Prix (MotoGP category) played on Friday and Saturday:

1. Fabio Quartararo (FRA / Yamaha-SRT) 1: 58.547

2. Valentino Rossi (ITA / Yamaha) at 0.146

3. Marc Marquez (ESP / Honda) at 0.366

4. Jack Miller (AUS / Ducati-Pramac) at 0.456

5. Danilo Petrucci (ITA / Ducati) at 0.487

6. Cal Crutchlow (Honda-LCR) at 0.637

7. Maverick Vinales (ESP / Yamaha) at 0.751

8. Franco Morbidelli (ITA / Yamaha-SRT) at 0.874

9. Takaaki Nakagami (Honda-LCR) at 0.933

10. Alex Espargaro (ESP / Aprilia) at 0.982

...

15. Johann Zarco (FRA / KTM) at 1,300

...

20. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA / Suzuki) at 2.364

© 2019 AFP