Ecstar Suzuki’s Alex Rins stole MotoGP victory from reigning champion Marc Marquez by 0.013s this lunchtime, turning his GSX-RR tight on the exit of Woodcote to claim his second win of the season.
There was drama from the very first corner when Fabio Quartararo lost the rear of his Petronas Yamaha in the middle Copse on lap one, leaving Andrea Dovizioso with nowhere to go other than into the stricken M1.
Dovizoso was thrown into the air, whilst his GP19 slid into the tyre wall in flames. After some assistance, both walked away from the crash, however, with Dovizioso out, Marquez had an opportunity to grow his lead atop the World Championship to 83 points over the Italian.
Marquez had got off the line better than anybody else and led the opening stages, originally from Valentino Rossi, before Rins moved past the Yamaha man into second place.
The Suzuki man sat extremely closely behind Marquez for the entirety of the race, briefly moving past the World Champion on lap nine, carrying more speed out of turn one. That lead lasted only four corners, as at the end of the Hanger Straight, Marquez snapped straight back, regaining the lead.
It remained Marquez from Rins for the next ten laps, with the Suzuki man never dropping more than half a second from the rear wheel of Marquez’ RC213V, even after some hairy moments.
Despite Rins’ speed through the faster corners, especially through the loop section of the circuit, Marquez’ speed down the two long straights looked as if he had all bases covered. Rins attempted to drive around the outside of Marquez out of the flat out final corner coming onto the final lap, only for Marquez to push his compatriot onto the curbs.
Gathering himself for a final lap push, Rins built up to attack in the final half of the lap, some conservative lines out of Aintree meant Rins could stay with Marquez heading into the final sector.
Marquez marked his Honda in the middle of Luffield, forcing Rins to run wide, which in turn helped the Suzuki man fire his GSX-RR out of the final corner and out-drag Marquez to the line by just 0.013 seconds.
The battling between the front two allowed Maverick Vinales to close in on the front two, with the Yamaha man ending just over half a second behind the front two in third place.
Despite missing out on the win, Marquez did see his lead in the World Championship extend to 78 points over Dovizioso, after the Italians accident, with Rins now third ahead of Petrucci.
Valentino Rossi was fourth and will be disappointed to be able to convert his speed from free practice and qualifying into strong race pace. Franco Morbidelli was fifth on satellite Yamaha, ahead of Cal Crutchlow and the Ducati duo of Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller.
Pol Espargaro was ninth on his factory KTM, with Andrea Iannone rounding out the top ten on his factory Aprilia. Pecco Bagnaia was eleventh on his Pramac Ducati, with Sylvain Guintoli, Hafizh Syahrin, Jorge Lorenzo and Karel Abraham rounding out the point scorers.
