Photo by Gold & Goose
It seems that history is being made nearly every week in MotoGP of late. On Sunday, in front of 75,000 fans at Silverstone, it was Maverick Viñales’ turn to rewrite the record books. At the British Grand Prix Viñales raced the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR to its maiden MotoGP victory. It also marked the first MotoGP win for 21-year-old Spaniard and it was a dominating one, taking the lead on the first lap and pulling away to a convincing 3.480-second margin of victory.
The win was the first for Suzuki since 2007 (Chris Vermeulen at Le Mans) and the first for the company since returning full-time to MotoGP last year after three years away from the sport.
Cal Crutchlow gave the British fans plenty to cheer about by finishing second on his LCR Honda. Valentino Rossi took third on the factory Yamaha and narrowed the points gap a bit to series leader Marc Marquez, who took fourth after running off the track late in the race.
“It feels incredible,” Viñales said of his win. “For all the work to come through with a race like that. I could manage all the time, the lap times were so good. The team worked so much and I’m so grateful to them because I came to this weekend and I think I could win because I feel really great at Silverstone always and my bike was on a really good level. Today we did it. This is one dream that came true. I hope I can give to Suzuki more things like that.”
Rossi led the field into turn one, but Viñales emerged leader a few turns into the first lap. A collision farther back in the field between Loris Baz and Pol Espargaro at turn two resulted in a massive crash with both riders sliding back onto the track. Trailing riders had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the downed pair. The accident brought out the red flag.
Baz was taken to the track’s medical center for further evaluation. Pol Espargaro did not make the restart either. Officials announced the original 20-lap race would be restarted with 19 laps. There was about a 20-minute delay.
Crutchlow, from pole, led the restart over Rossi and Viñales. Three quarters through the first lap it was Viñales working his way to the lead ahead of Crutchlow and now Marquez to end lap one. Two laps in and Marquez moved to second and was 9-10ths back from Viñales.
Stefan Bradl crashed out early in the going on the Aprilia.
The early laps battle between Marquez, Crutchlow and Rossi for second allowed Viñales to open his gap up front. Five laps in and the Suzuki rider enjoyed a 2.2 second lead.
Rossi pushed past Marquez on lap six, but he was still losing ground to Viñales up front.
At the halfway mark it was Viñales expanding his lead to three seconds. Rossi was holding off a tightly-packed group that included Crutchlow, Marquez, Iannone and Pedrosa.
In the mid-stages of the race the battle over second really heated up with Iannone moving up and swapping with Rossi, all the while Crutchlow was right there ready to take advantage should there be any missteps.
With six laps to go Crutchlow made two brilliant moves to get past Marquez and then Rossi with the span of a few turns to grab third.
Iannone slid out harmlessly out of second place with a lower-speed crash with six laps to go.
Meanwhile Marquez ran wide in one turn and had to take the paved escape route. He came right back on the track behind Rossi and resumed the battle for third. With five to go it was Marquez taking back the position in an epic scrap with Rossi.
All that fighting gave second-running Crutchlow breathing room over the battle behind him.
With three to go Marquez chased down a sliding Crutchlow and the two swapped second a couple of times before Marquez ran off the track again giving up the position to the Brit and Marquez falling all the way to fifth. On the final lap Marquez got past his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to secure fourth.
Marquez now leads the championship by 50 points over Rossi (210-160). Lorenzo is third with 146 and Viñales (125) with the victory moved up to fourth in the standings ahead of Pedrosa (120).
The series moves to round 13 next weekend in Misano.
OCTO BRITISH GRAND PRIX MotoGP Race Classification 2016 Silverstone, Sunday, September 4, 2016
| 1 | 25 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 172.1 | 39’03.559 |
| 2 | 20 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | LCR Honda | Honda | 171.9 | +3.480 |
| 3 | 16 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 171.9 | +4.063 |
| 4 | 13 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 171.7 | +5.992 |
| 5 | 11 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 171.7 | +6.381 |
| 6 | 10 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 171.3 | +12.303 |
| 7 | 9 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 171.0 | +16.672 |
| 8 | 8 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 170.7 | +19.432 |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | ITA | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 170.3 | +25.618 |
| 10 | 6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 169.8 | +32.084 |
| 11 | 5 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | COL | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | 169.5 | +36.131 |
| 12 | 4 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | IRL | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | 169.3 | +39.130 |
| 13 | 3 | 22 | Alex LOWES | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 169.2 | +40.143 |
| 14 | 2 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 169.2 | +41.356 |
| 15 | 1 | 53 | Tito RABAT | SPA | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 169.2 | +41.943 |
| 16 | 43 | Jack MILLER | AUS | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 168.7 | +47.610 | |
| 17 | 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 164.0 | +1’56.177 | |
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 29 | Andrea IANNONE | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 171.9 | 6 Laps | ||
| 6 | Stefan BRADL | GER | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 167.0 | 17 Laps | ||
| Not Starting | ||||||||
| 76 | Loris BAZ | FRA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 0 Lap | |||
| 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 0 Lap | |||
