Marquez back in the groove at Silverstone

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was back on the top step of the podium after an intense encounter with Jorge Lorenzo at the Hertz British Grand Prix, with Valentino Rossi joining them on the podium. Marquez became the first rider since Valentino Rossi in 2005 to win 11 MotoGP races in a single season.

Dani Pedrosa enjoyed a tight battle with Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso and took a well earned 4th place, just 0.175 seconds off the podium.

Lorenzo took the initiative to pull out in front in the early stages but Marquez stayed with the front group and took the fight to his Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rival. Marquez had the pace to catch Lorenzo, but made two slight errors, giving Lorenzo the opportunity to retake the lead twice.

An epic battle ensued on the final two laps with the riders touching briefly before Marc was able to make the pass stick, eventually crossing the line 0.732s ahead of Lorenzo.

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Marc Marquez: “I’m very happy with this win! I expected the race to be slightly different, given what happened in practice yesterday, but today with higher temperatures it seems that both Jorge and Valentino took a step forward. Above all, Jorge, because he had a great pace and we were fighting right to the end. It was important to win today, after missing out at Brno. I also had a score to settle from last year, when Jorge beat me on the final corner, so I am happy to be back on the top step of the podium!”

Jorge Lorenzo: “Knowing what this weekend was like, this race is much better than we expected. I made a really good start and pushed 100%, more than ever, so I am really proud of my riding. The only thing is that here we probably don’t have the best package. Though we did a really good job improving little by little and practice by practice, we were not able to have the same confortable pace as Marc. I was pushing a lot and maybe he was able to relax a little bit more. I was struggling a lot with my physical condition to keep the bike on two wheels and being able to ride these lap times.

“Finally I lost a lot of time when he touched me. I knew that he was going to try to overtake me in this corner in first gear on the right, but I didn’t let him enter. On the outside I opened the throttle and he touched me. In the next corner he touched me again as he went into the corner and I lost seven tenths of a second. We started the weekend 1.3 seconds slower than Marc and we finished the weekend with being just 7 tenths slower than Marc after twenty laps. That’s fantastic!”

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A great contest between Valentino Rossi (46), Andrea Dovizioso (04) and Dani Pedrosa.

Nine-time World Champion Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was chased hard for third by the experienced pair of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team).

Valentino Rossi: “I’m happy for the podium. It’s the first time here at Silverstone and usually this is a very difficult track for me. I am very happy about my pace at the beginning, because Jorge was in front and pushing a lot, so the lap times were very fast. I was able to stay with them for the first laps, but unfortunately I had already a small gap when I was behind Dovizioso.

“To try and catch them I stressed the rear tyre too much, so I had too slow my rhythm and from that moment I started a very hard battle with Dani and Dovi to the end. I decided to stay in front because I had a quite good pace and I could arrive on the podium. We have a lot of positive things. We have another podium. On the other side, I wanted to stay behind Marc and Jorge throughout the race. We have to do another step to prepare 100% for Misano in two weeks, because that will be my home Grand Prix and we will have to do more than the maximum.”

Rossi made it onto the rostrum but was trailed by just 0.175s by Pedrosa and 0.544s by Dovizioso. ‘The Doctor’ set a new outright record of 246 starts in the premier class of Grand Prix racing in the Silverstone contest.

Dani Pedrosa: “Today’s race wasn’t easy. I had a bad start and on the opening laps I lost a little ground on the frontrunners, although to be honest I didn’t have the same pace as the leaders afterwards either. However, we fought with Valentino and Andrea and in the end we gained a place on the final lap. It hasn’t been our best weekend, but we will try to be back up at the front again at the next Grand Prix.”

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Pol Espargaro continues his impressive rookie campaign.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) won a battle for sixth place as his impressive rookie campaign continued. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing), Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) and top British finisher Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) completed the top ten.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) was down in 12th, whilst Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) was 22nd after experiencing a rear end problem.

Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) crashed out towards the end of the race, ruining his quest for a top ten finish.

Results
1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 40m 51.835s
2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 40m 52.567s
3. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 41m 0.354s
4. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 41m 0.529s
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 41m 1.073s
6. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 41m 16.581s
7. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP (RC213V) 41m 18.552s
8. Andrea Iannone ITA Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 41m 18.745s
9. Aleix Espargaro ESP NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 41m 25.290s
10. Scott Redding GBR Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RCV1000R)* 41m 30.929s
11. Yonny Hernandez COL Pramac Racing (Desmosedici) 41m 32.090s
12. Cal Crutchlow GBR Ducati Team (Desmosedici) 41m 34.862s
13. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing (RCV1000R) 41m 44.080s
14. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 41m 50.816s
15. Alex De Angelis RSM NGM Forward Racing (Forward Yamaha) 41m 50.999s
16. Leon Camier GBR Drive M7 Aspar (RCV1000R) 41m 57.515s
17. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART) 42m 2.774s
18. Danilo Petrucci ITA IodaRacing Project (ART) 42m 8.669s
19. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Avintia) 42m 8.739s
20. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Avintia)* 42m 26.774s
21. Broc Parkes AUS Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-ART)* 42m 30.277s
22. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) +1 lap
Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini (RC213V) DNF
*Rookie

Championship Standings
1 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team 288
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 199
3 Valentino Rossi Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 189
4 Jorge Lorenzo Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 157
5 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team 129
6 Aleix Espargaro NGM Forward Racing 92
7 Pol Espargaro Monster Yamaha Tech 3 88
8 Andrea Iannone Pramac Racing 81
9 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP 74
10 Bradley Smith Monster Yamaha Tech 3 65
11 Alvaro Bautista GO&FUN Gresini Honda 56
12 Scott Redding GO&FUN Honda Gresini 51
13 Cal Crutchlow Ducati Team 40
14 Hiroshi Aoyama Drive M7 Aspar 39
15 Yonny Hernandez Emergy T.I. Pramac Racing 32
16 Nicky Hayden Drive M7 Aspar 29
17 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing 28
18 Colin Edwards NGM Forward Racing 11
19 Michele Pirro Ducati Team 11
20 Broc Parkes Paul Bird Motorsport 7
21 Danilo Petrucci IodaRacing Project 4
22 Mike di Meglio Avintia Racing 4
23 Michael Laverty Paul Bird Motorsport 2
24 Hector Barbera Avintia Racing 2
25 Leon Camier Drive M7 Aspar 1
26 Alex de Angelis NGM Forward Racing

Moto3 – Win for Alex Rins – Miller hangs on to championship lead

Moto3 was won by Alex Rins on the final corner, with Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini also on the podium. Pole man Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) was pushed right to the limit by his teammate Marquez and by Bastianini, who both provisionally led the race. The winning margin between Rins and Marquez was just 0.011s, with Bastianini (Junior Team Go&FUN Moto3) just 0.061s back on Marquez.

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Alex Rins and Alec Marquez.

Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) finished a hard fought sixth at the Silverstone circuit but managed to hold onto his lead in the World Championship standings.

Jack Miller: “I wanted to stay in the first group throughout the race, but some other riders made mistake which caused us to lose a lot of distance from the front. We had the pace and we were there lap after lap, but in the end we couldn’t manage it. We suffered a bit this weekend, both with my riding as well as with set-up. Now we have to get back on a positive trend and focus and on the next two GPs in Misano and Aragon.”

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Jack Miller (8) retains championship lead despite finishing 6th at Silverstone.

Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing) was unlucky to miss the podium, having run with that front group. He eventually finished fourth and was just 0.051s away from a rostrum result. A further four and half seconds back Jakub Kornfeil (Calvo Team) won a battle for fifth involving a huge group of riders.

The top ten was completed by Niccolo Antonelli (Junior Team GO&FUN), Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold), Danny Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo) and Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo).

Wild card Joe Irving crashed out in the early stages, with Efren Vazquez (SAXOPRINT RTG) also going down early on. New Mahindra Racing rider Andrea Migno was another crasher, though fortunately all those riders were uninjured. Scott Deroue (RW Racing GP) was forced to retire with smoke coming from his exhaust late in the race.

Moto3 Results
1. Alex Rins SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 (Honda) 38m 11.330s
2. Alex Marquez SPA Estrella Galicia 0,0 (Honda) 38m 11.341s
3. Enea Bastianini ITA Junior Team GO&FUN Moto3 (KTM) 38m 11.402s
4. Miguel Oliveira POR Mahindra Racing (Mahindra) 38m 11.453s
5. Jakub Kornfeil CZE Calvo Team (KTM) 38m 15.930s
6. Jack Miller AUS Red Bull KTM Ajo (KTM) 38m 16.031s
7. Niccolò Antonelli ITA Junior Team GO&FUN Moto3 (KTM) 38m 16.097s
8. Alexis Masbou FRA Ongetta-Rivacold (Honda) 38m 16.923s
9. Danny Kent GBR Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo (Husqvarna) 38m 16.989s
10. Niklas Ajo FIN Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo (Husqvarna) 38m 17.001s

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