Runaway MotoGP rider and the undisputed world champion Marc Marquez did not allow his odd loss in the Czech MotoGP last week to interfere with his performance in the British MotoGP at Silverstone on Sunday. The 21-year-old Repsol Honda rider from Spain overcame the last-laps challenge from compatriot Jorge Lorenzo and restored his leadership status in the 2014 season with his 11th win from 12 races. Marquez’s slippage at Brno had raised some questions about his chances at Silverstone but the level-headed youngster silenced his detractors with his superb ride on Sunday. Earlier on Saturday, Marquez had clinched his 10th pole of the season that would have boosted his morale. Last year’s champion Jorge Lorenzo did his utmost but Marquez proved too good for him this year. Lorenzo’s Yamaha Movistar teammate Valentino Rossi was third in his 246th MotoGP appearance and Marquez’s teammate and Czech GP winner, Dani Pedrosa, finished fourth. At the end of Silverstone MotoGP, Marquez has aggregated 288 points and he is far ahead of his Repsol Honda team-mate Pedrosa’s 199. Incidentally, Pedrosa has recently signed a two-year extension term with the manufacturers. With 189 points, Italian veteran Rossi is on the third place and he has also signed extension of two years with Yamaha. Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is fourth on 157 with six races of the 2014 season still remaining.
Marc Marquez had already taken the pole on Saturday but he stuttered at the start and allowed Jorge Lorenzo to surpass him on the first lap itself. Marquez’s start has been the weakest point of his race and it was not the first time that the Spaniard yielded his pole advantage to fellow riders. To his credit, Lorenzo had three out of four Silverstone MotoGP title to his name and he wanted the fourth as badly as Marquez needed to reverse his lapse at Brno. The pair stayed bunched together for the entire tenure of the race with the gap between them alternating between 0.2 and 0.3 seconds. But the determined Marquez made his first move with 7 laps left. He sliced down his bike from the inside of Lorenzo at Stowe. Two laps later, Lorenzo was back in the lead as Marquez ran wide at the same spot. But the champion rider couldn’t give up and with 3 laps remaining, he tried another overtake by squeezing close to Lorenzo. But the Yamaha rider kept himself on the outside even as the two bikes lightly touched one another. Then Marquez took one big step as he hurled his bike through into the loop and raced away to his 11th victory of the 2014 season.
Behind Marquez and Lorenzo, there was another tussle going on for the third spot. There were three of them; Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. At one time, Pedrosa looked like making it to the third place but he found it it difficult to shake off his drivers. For a while he fell to the fifth place but again he left Dovizioso behind him to finish fourth. He made an attempt to pass Rossi but couldn’t succeed in the end. Among other riders, Bradley Smith looked good for the spot earlier but a problem with one of his wheels cost him two laps. Smith’s Tech-3 Yamaha team-mate, Pol Espargaro however took the sixth place after a big tussle with Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista. Unfortunately Bautista crashed out of contention. Aleix Espargaro was right behind Marquez at the start of the race but he slowly faded away as the race progressed and ultimately fell back to the ninth place. The British spectators had to remain content with the 10th spot taken by the native rider Scott Redding. His fellow British riders Leon Camier and Michael Laverty finished 16th and 17th respectively.
Marquez said that he enjoyed his duel with fellow Spaniard Lorenzo, conceding that Lorenzo was stronger between the two of them. Last year at Silverstone, the first place was taken by Lorenzo ahead of Marquez. For Lorenzo, it was a setback since he had won here in 2012 and 2013. The riders will congregate at picturesque San Marino race arena during September 12-14, 2014 for the 13th MotoGP of this season.
