Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo delivered a stunning performance today to take victory in the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit. The defending world champion made another lightening race start this afternoon, flying from second on the grid to take the hole shot into turn one ahead of arch rival Marc Marquez. Although unable to break away, Lorenzo executed an unbroken string of inch perfect laps to maintain the lead until just three laps from the end when Marquez attempted to take control of the race.

His lead was not to last as Lorenzo fought back a lap later to regain the lead, beginning a battle which was to last to the last corner as the two exchanged places in the fight for the lead. It was Lorenzo who emerged victorious, making the definitive move just two corners from the end and holding the tighter line into the last turn to cross the line victorious and claim his fourth win of the season.

Team mate Valentino Rossi made an excellent start from sixth on the grid, initially jumping three places to slot in behind Marquez in third position. Still struggling to find an optimum set up for the first few race laps, the nine-time world champion then slipped back to sixth before mounting his fight back. With 12 laps to go Rossi was swapping positions in a close fight with German rider Stefan Bradl, emerging the victor two laps later and then hunting down Alvaro Bautista in fourth. The battle with Bautista was to begin with just three laps remaining and continue to the finish line, Rossi’s race craft eventually giving him the upper hand and earning him fourth place at the flag.

The results bring Lorenzo five points closer to the championship leader Marquez, the point difference now 39 as Lorenzo sits on 194, just nine points behind Pedrosa in second. Rossi continues in fourth in the standings, now on 156 points and building the gap to Cal Crutchlow in fifth to 20 points.

The next Grand Prix takes place in two weeks time, the San Marino Grand Prix on 15th September.


Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1st - Time: 40.52.515

This was one of the best races I’ve ever had. I’m really happy and really pleased. It’s a very important win. I pushed from the beginning to try and open a gap, even more than in recent races but it was impossible. Marc never gives up, even if he’s a little bit injured after the warm up. He overtook me three laps from the end so I studied him a little for one lap and I saw he was struggling in some braking so I overtook him on the corner where he crashed. I pushed in the last lap to the maximum, I opened a little gap but I made a mistake in braking and almost crashed. When he overtook me three corners from the end I thought it was over again and second place but then he opened a little gap in the last corner so I thought "now or never" and I tried and got it. To be honest I’m not thinking about the championship, I’m thinking just to enjoy this victory which was very special to get then focus on Misano!”

Valentino Rossi - Position: 4th - Time: +13.233

“For me this result is a bit more positive than in Brno. Every time I come here I have a bad result, this time we worked in a different and better way. The fourth place is better than in Brno, but it is still a fourth place. Unfortunately I made a good start but in the first laps the other guys between the second and seventh lap were a lot faster than me, but the second half of the race was not so bad. We will continue to work hard, we never give up and are not so far now. We have a constant pace and we are nearly there but we need to go a bit faster, we still have to work to improve our pace. We made a modification between warm up and the race that gave me a better feeling with the front.”

Wilco Zeelenberg - Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager

“It was fantastic to see the final race from the triple in a row go our way. It was hard to fight for so many laps in the lead and every time get third, but this race he rode like an animal! He gave his best and the last lap was amazing, he deserved this victory. The team worked very hard to prepare the bike he finally raced with. We improved in the braking zone and I think working and listening together we were able to give him what he deserved today.”

Massimo Meregalli - Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director

“Even though it was a really hard and tough race Jorge still won it. I think he did a great and fantastic job. We put a lot of effort into this weekend and he put in a lot of effort too so we could beat our competitors in an incredible last lap. It has been a really nice race to watch. We knew that Silverstone was going to be a good circuit for us and we are really happy to leave here with this big win. We have taken back a lot of positive spirit and we are looking forward to Misano. I want to say a big thank you to the guys who made this possible and we will keep pushing as the target of the Championship is still there. It's been another challenging race for Valentino but nevertheless he was able to get a good fourth place. Now we head to Misano, Valentino's home race, and we will again do our outmost to give him the best possible bike to fight for the podium.”

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