Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) starred in a thrilling British Grand Prix at Silverstone today, finishing a tantalisingly close second and third, behind winner and fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

Marquez took the lead twice in the last three laps, making his final bid for victory with three corners to go. He made it through, but Lorenzo dived inside at the next turn and held him off in the fast dash through Woodcote to cross the line just 0.081 seconds in front. Pedrosa was a further 1.4 seconds back at the flag, having been right with his fellow Spaniards in the final stages after coming through from a sluggish start.

It was a miraculous ride from Marquez, who crashed at high speed in this morning’s warm-up session, dislocating his left shoulder. After treatment at the Clinica Mobile he was passed fit to ride, although he needed painkilling pills and injections. The 20-year-old rookie and World Championship leader started the 20-lap race from pole position, aiming to continue his record-breaking spree with a fifth consecutive win.

And he so nearly did it. Watched by a record 73,000 race-day crowd, Lorenzo jumped into the lead from the start, Marquez shadowing him all the way while Pedrosa fought through from fifth on the first lap, setting a new lap record in the process.

Lap after lap, Marquez stayed right with the reigning World Champion. He made his first pass towards the end of lap 18 of 20, going underneath Lorenzo at the tight Brooklands left-hander. Half a lap later Lorenzo out-braked the youngster into Vale to regain the lead. It stayed that way until the pair attacked Brooklands for the final time, Marquez repeating his earlier move. He made it stick, but after making a tight entry into the subsequent Luffield right-hander, he lost some grip and drifted just wide enough for Lorenzo to sneak through on the inside.

Marquez’s result was his 11th podium finish from his first 12 MotoGP races. With six races remaining he leads Pedrosa by 30 points and Lorenzo by 39.

Pedrosa had a great race after a difficult qualifying session yesterday, when he was fifth fastest. He knew he needed a great start if he was to challenge the leaders, but he didn’t get one. Nonetheless he kept his head and quickly started passing riders ahead of him. By lap four he was into third place with a clear track ahead of him, which allowed him to quickly close on the leaders, establishing that new lap record in the process. However, his red-hot pace had taken the best from his tyres and on the last lap he made a minor mistake which lost him the chance to attack those in front.

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) had a strong ride to fifth, enjoying an exciting duel with Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), the pair swapping fourth place on several occasions during the final few laps. Finally Rossi got the upper hand, passing the chequered flag just 0.065 seconds ahead of the Spaniard.

Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) expected better than his sixth place finish. The former Moto2 World Champion struggled with a lack of edge grip and corner-exit drive, which prevented him from challenging closer to the front of the pack.

Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) had a difficult race. He had a numb hand for much of the 20 laps – probably as a result of his crash during practice – and could do little more than just make it to the finish.

The MotoGP circus now heads back to the Continent, for the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano on September 15.



Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 2nd

“I’m very happy with how things went today. This morning when my shoulder popped out I thought that my weekend was over, but the doctors were able to put it back in place quickly and that allowed me to be up there at the front, fighting with Jorge. I didn’t feel much pain, because I received an injection to dull the pain, but I was lacking strength and feeling tired by the end. Despite all this, I was able to battle all the way until the final corner with Jorge, who eventually emerged victorious today. Congratulations to him! For me these 20 points are like a win!”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd

“I’m disappointed with the result today. I rode well but got a bad start and conceded a lot of seconds in the opening two laps, so I had to really push in order to recover ground. I gradually caught up with Marc and Jorge, but I wore my tyres out in the process and at the end of the race I lacked grip in the right-hand corners. I tried to calm down and slow my pace in order to lower the tyre temperature, although finally I wasn’t able to match their performance. That meant that when I attempted to pass, the bike slid out a lot and I was unable to really get involved in the fight for the win. I will have to give it another go at Misano.”

Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 5th

“Unfortunately once again I have had to concede to Valentino but we had a lot of fun out there. The last lap was really nice because we overtook each other several times but unfortunately I couldn’t make it stick and he beat me by just 0.065 seconds! That’s a shame but I am happy anyway because I have improved my feeling with the bike again here, we were able to make up a lot of ground at the start of the race and confirm our recent good form again. We just need to take another little step to be even more competitive but it is coming. Hopefully we can have another nice race in the next Grand Prix at Misano, the team’s home race.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 6th

“I feel like we had the same race we had at Brno last week because we were facing the same problems. We struggled on the edge of the tyre, with no drive out of the corners and this is a bit disappointing for me because I am really strong on braking. We have to analyse why we can do a better speed in the practice on used tyres and not in the race. Of course we expected a better result today but there’s no time to complain now. We must work harder to find a solution for Misano GP.”

Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 21st

“My hand went numb after just three laps of the race today and I just couldn’t keep the pace up. I’m sure it was a result of my crash yesterday. I was really struggling but I was determined to make it to the end of the race so I kept pushing. We have fallen short of our objectives here but I couldn’t do much more today.”

Event results - Round 12 - Race 1

1 Jorge Lorenzo 40m52.515s SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
2 Marc Marquez 0.081 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Dani Pedrosa 1.551 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 13.233 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Alvaro Bautista 13.298 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
6 Stefan Bradl 20.227 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
7 Cal Crutchlow 26.299 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
8 Nicky Hayden 35.993 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Bradley Smith 36.119 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Aleix Espargaro 53.196 ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
11 Andrea Iannone 59.058 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
12 Michele Pirro 1'00.710 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Hector Barbera 1'01.690 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
14 Colin Edwards 1'01.843 USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
15 Danilo Petrucci 1'08.833 ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
16 Randy De Puniet 1'09.063 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
17 Claudio Corti 1'16.474 ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
18 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'16.535 JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
19 Michael Laverty 1'32.057 WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
20 Yonny Hernandez 1'36.224 COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Bryan Staring 2'00.635 AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
22 Andrea Dovizioso DNF ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
23 Lukas Pesek DNF CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 233 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 203 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Jorge Lorenzo 194 pts SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Valentino Rossi 156 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 136 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Stefan Bradl 113 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
7 Alvaro Bautista 103 pts SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
8 Andrea Dovizioso 96 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Nicky Hayden 88 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Aleix Espargaro 68 pts ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
11 Bradley Smith 66 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
12 Michele Pirro 44 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
13 Andrea Iannone 41 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
14 Hector Barbera 27 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
15 Colin Edwards 27 pts USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
16 Danilo Petrucci 22 pts ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
17 Randy De Puniet 20 pts FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
18 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Pramac Racing
19 Yonny Hernandez 7 pts COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
20 Claudio Corti 7 pts ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
21 Karel Abraham 5 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
22 Alex de Angelis 5 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
23 Hiroshi Aoyama 4 pts JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
24 Michael Laverty 3 pts WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
25 Bryan Staring 2 pts AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
26 Javier del Amor 1 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
27 Martin Bauer 0 pts AUT S&B SUTER Remus Racing Team
28 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
29 Ivan Silva 0 pts ESP FTR Avintia Blusens
30 Blake Young 0 pts USA APRILIA Attack Performance

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