On a rain-soaked Sunday at Silverstone, Italian veteran Valentino Rossi won the British MotoGP and regained the top spot from Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo in the championship leaderboard. Riding for the Pramac Ducati team, Rossi’s compatriot Danilo Petrucci claimed the second place. Another Italian Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati made it 1-2-3 from Italy on the podium. Jorge Lorenzo of Spain didn’t have a great race at Silverstone as he finished fourth. The worst fate beckoned to the reigning world champion Marc Marquez, who crashed with a little over 7 laps remaining. This was Marquez’s fourth crash this season and with that his World Championship campaign has literally come to an end. Marque had taken the top pole position on Saturday and he was on Rossi’s tail until he met with that crash. Petrucci took Marquez’s place in chasing Rossi and even reduced the gap to 1.6 seconds. In the end, however, Rossi showed his class and took the top spot on the podium. In the process, he also snatched back the leadership position in the championship table from Lorenzo.
Marc Marquez took his third pole position in four races by shattering his own lap record in Silverstone MotoGP qualifying. Marquez changed to the medium tyres in Q2 and led from start to finish. Jorge Lorenzo was second with Mraquez’s Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa finishing third. Valentino Rossi was fourth. The other top 6 grid positions were taken by Pol Espargaro, who finished fifth; Bradley Smith 6th; Scott Redding 7th; Cal Crutchlow 8th; Andrea Iannone 9th and Aleix Espargaro finished 10th.
It was an extremely wet Sunday in Silverstone at race time. At the warm up, Rossi was fastest but he had to start from fourth on the grid. The start was delayed as the riders switched back to wet tyres. Riding conditions were treacherous even as the start was ordered after 30 minutes of the original schedule. The experienced Rossi began by passing his movistar Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo at the village corner. By the end of lap two Rossi was ahead of everyone else. As the race progressed, Marquez began to gain on Rossi. The two riders broke away from the pack and continued until lap 12. Just when everyone thought about the epic last-lap Silverstone showdown between Rossi and Marquez, the reigning world champion crashed he as he exited Turn 1on lap 13. Marquez’s fourth crash of the 2015 season eased the pressure on Rossi. But Rossi found that a fellow Italian Danilo Petrucci was gaining on him rather quickly riding on the Pramac Ducati. But the veteran rider shrugged off the close challenge and finished with his fourth win of the season. The Silverstone victory has taken Rossi 12 points clear of Lorenzo in the MotoGP World Championship leadership race. Marquez’s crash took him 77 points adrift behind Rossi and with six races remaining in the season, there is hardly a way that Marquez could overhaul Rossi and Lorenzo.
Behind Movistar Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi and Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci, Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso took the third place while Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo had to rest content with fourth spot. Dani Pedrosa was fifth ahead of Britain’s Scott Redding. Behind Redding was his compatriot Yamaha’s Bradley Smith while Andrea Iannone finished eighth on his Ducati. Spain’s Suzuki rider Aleix Espargaro was ninth and another Spaniard Alvaro Bautista finished tenth on Aprilia.
