Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi extended his lead in the MotoGP championship by twelve points after he took a stunning victory at a very wet Silverstone. But title rival Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez crashed out, unhurt whilst battling for the win, leaving the Doctor to clinch maximum points.
It is also Rossi’s debut race win at the English track, but one of the biggest surprises came in the form of Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci who fought off fellow Ducati rider, Andrea Dovizioso to snatch second in the rain, to complete an all Italian podium.
Valentino’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had a strong start but fell back down the grid. He fought back and was close to overtaking Dovizioso but had to settle for fourth at the flag.
Marc VDS Racing’s Scott Redding bagged the fastest Brit accolade and finished the race in sixth. Fellow countryman Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith ended the day at the Silverstone track just behind in seventh.
Initially it was Lorenzo who got the hole-shot, followed by Marquez and Rossi. But a rotation later Rossi got the better of Marquez at Copse. But Rossi made a move to go underneath Lorenzo to take the lead on lap two of twenty, with Crutchlow getting the better of Pol Espargaro to go up to fourth.
But as Crutchlow was making his way up to third, he was taken out by his LCR Honda team-mate Jack Miller at Vale on lap three. He was able to get back on his bike, and went back to the pits to swap machines. But he crashed again, but this time at Maggotts. The incident is now being investigated by race control.
On lap four Rossi and Marquez pulled away from Lorenzo and had a three second advantage in the rain. But Lorenzo got eaten up by the Ducati’s of Petrucci and Dovizioso and Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and slipped back to sixth on lap nine.
But as Marquez was challenging for the win he crashed out at Copse Corner with eight laps remaining, leaving Rossi able to pave the way for the win.
At first the race was declared dry, but at the start spots of rain started to fall on the track on the warm up laps and then the rain fell heavily and it was red flagged. It was delayed as the race was then declared
wet. Lorenzo had a second bike set up on dry settings, but because of the delay due to the weather conditions he was able to get a wet YZR-M1 set-up.
Some riders did succumb to the wet conditions, at Copse Hernandez crashed on the opening lap. Bradl and Pol Espargaro also fell out on the track. Aspar’s Eugene Laverty ended the race in sixteenth.
