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The weekend of the Octo British Grand Prix finishes with a ninth place conquered by Danilo Petrucci, who ends his race with determination. Scott, instead, crashes after two laps, while fighting for the Top 8, and is forced to pass under the chequered flag in the seventeenth position.

The British rider begin with a very good start and after two turns is already in fourth place. But the race is stopped immediately by the red flag for the accident, fortunately without serious consequences, that involved Baz and Pol Espargaro. In the second start Scott is not decisive but still manage to stay in the Top 10. After two laps the crash that excludes him from the GP. Redding has the merit to continue until the end also to pay a tribute to his fans.

Petrux maintains the starting position and on lap six he manages to pass Laverty. Two laps after the crash of his teammate, Danilo attacks and overtakes Miller. But the gap with Aleix Espargaro and then with Jorge Lorenzo is already too large.

Redding: It was not easy

“It is a pity. I started very well in the first race. In the second race, something has changed, I felt I had less feeling. I crashed without any warning from the bike. It can happen. I am sorry it happened here. But never give up! I continued till the end, even though it was not easy, even to thank my fans who have supported me lap by lap.”

Petrucci: I wanted to catch Jorge!

“We managed to finish in the top 10 and it is good. Finally, the circuits where I have more difficulties are finished and I am looking forward to going to Misano, a track that I see from my window. I wanted to catch Lorenzo but he was too far away. I thank the whole team for the work they have done in this GP. We have not given up, we are very united and it is great to work with them.”

Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko

The British weekend concluded with a top-10 placement for Aprilia. The Silverstone race had a red flag straight away in the first lap due to an accident involving Baz and Pol Espargaró. Following the quick start procedure, hostilities resumed with race distance reduced to 19 laps.
Both Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl got off to a good start when the lights went out, vying for an important placement with a good, consistent pace. However, as he engaged in battle with a few riders, Stefan was the innocent victim of contact that led to a fall, forcing him to retire.

Bautista continued his progress, battling at length with Hernandez and managing to build up a comfortable gap after overtaking him. Managing his tyre wear well, the Spanish Aprilia Racing Team Gresini rider demonstrated very consistent performance, moving into tenth place under the chequered flag. This is an encouraging result in view of the upcoming Italian round, scheduled at Misano in seven days.

Alvaro Bautista: We struggled throughout the weekend

“There was quite a bit of confusion at the first start. Fortunately, both Pol and Loris are fine. At the second start, I tried to find my pace. We struggled throughout the weekend, but I know that in duels with the other riders I would be able to improve. That is the way it was. I recovered a few positions, battling for a long time then with Hernandez. When I overtook him, I changed an electronics setting on the RS-GP to gain a few tenths and increase the gap. I was successful, thanks to the team and the mechanics who worked hard to give me the best possible bike. I am looking forward to Misano optimistically. Aprilia is on their home pitch, so I hope to give the fans a good performance”.

Stefan Bradl: Laverty caused me to crash

“I’m very disappointed because today my feeling on the bike was good. While I was fighting with some guys, Laverty gave me no space to turn, causing me to crash. All we can do is think about Misano”.

Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo fought hard battles at the Silverstone Circuit, securing third and eighth place at the British Grand Prix.

Valentino Rossi, who has been participating in the MotoGP class since its introduction in 2002, kicked off his 250th MotoGP class Grand Prix start in style. He stormed from second on the grid to grab the holeshot before tucking in behind Maverick Viñales, but his assertive start to the race was short-lived when the race was red flagged.

The opening lap to the shortened restarted race, which began at 15:54 local time, saw Rossi hold second place behind Cal Crutchlow into the first corner, but he had to let Viñales and Marc Marquez pass before the end of the first lap. With fifteen laps to go he saw the latter pull a gap on Crutchlow in third place and decided it was time to charge for the front. Within one lap the nine times World Champion passed the local rider and Marquez and focused on closing the margin of 2.4s to the race leader, but his rivals continued to threaten him from behind.

Eight laps on the Doctor came under pressure from Andrea Iannone as his rear tyre started to slide. What followed was a flurry of activity as Crutchlow and Marquez joined the fight for second place. Two laps later Rossi found himself in fifth place when he and Marquez briefly touched fairings. The Italian was quick to respond and close passes followed as they fought a heated battle, while Iannone crashed out of the race.

Rossi was unable to fend off Marquez and rode a smart end to the race, saving his tyres to seize the opportunity and take over third place when Marquez went wide. He held this podium position over the line as he rapidly approached Crutchlow in a last-lap sprint to the chequered flag, but he came just 0.583s short and wrapped up the day in third place.

Starting from ninth on the grid Lorenzo had a flying start off the line, taking seventh place into the first corner. He put his head down trying to close the gap to the front until the race was aborted due to a race incident in turn two.

He resumed his attack seamlessly during the shortened 19-lap race. Perfectly duplicating his start, he tried to progress from seventh place after the first corner, but saw Andrea Iannone put an aggressive pass on him before the end of the first lap. Lorenzo tried to follow and soon overtook Scott Redding to reclaim seventh place.

He continued his chase to the front, closing up on Dani Pedrosa and upped his pace, but lost time as he got engaged in a battle with Andrea Dovizioso for seventh place. Unable to match the pace of the Italian due to a vibrating rear tyre, he then got into battle with Aleix Espargaró, who he had to let pass. Despite the challenges, Lorenzo continued to keep his head down and later gained a position as Iannone retired from the race, to finish the race in eighth position, 19.432s from first.

The results see Rossi hold second place in the championship standings, now on 160 points, with a margin of 50 points to the championship leader. Lorenzo remains in third position, now on 146 points.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP will now travel to San Marino for the round at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli that will take place next week.

Valentino Rossi: We knew we would struggle in the dry

For the championship these are just three points but I‘m very happy because it was a hard battle. I fought for the entire race and never gave up. Unfortunately, after eight or nine laps, I started to slide a lot on the rear, so it was very difficult to control the bike, but at the end it was very funny with Marc and Crutchlow and I‘m very happy with this podium. It was a great race and a great battle, a double battle because at the beginning of the race and also at the end it was great. I enjoyed it a lot and I‘m so happy with this podium, because I knew I had to fight from the first corner to the last to arrive in front. On the dry we weren‘t so strong. We knew we would struggle with the tyres in the second half of the race and in fact it was like this. It was a great battle with Marquez and also with Crutchlow and Iannone. I tried to the maximum and arrived on the podium. It‘s not very important for the points in the championship but very important for me and for the team. I have some black on me from Marquez‘s tyres, because we touched two or three times. The battle was good but hard, fair and I enjoyed it a lot. When you try at the end to fight for the podium, between Marquez and me, it‘s always difficult, but it was a very good battle and I want to see it on television.

Jorge Lorenzo: We couldn’t find a good set up

It‘s been a difficult weekend, because we couldn‘t find a good set-up that made me comfortable with the bike. We tried a different setting in the race that we couldn‘t test in the warm-up, so we gambled a bit on the setting and it didn‘t work. I could see the second group there in front of me but I couldn‘t catch them. All of a sudden I felt the bike was vibrating a lot, so I had to close the throttle and relieve the pace and I couldn‘t keep up the pace I had at the start of the race.

Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko

The clouds lifted on the Silverstone circuit as Maverick Vinales stormed to his first ever premier class victory at the British Grand Prix. The Suzuki man converted his pole position by rocketing to the front on lap one, leading from then on in. Cal Crutchlow took 2nd and Valentino Rossi came home in the bronze medal position.

In a race that was action packed from the line, Vinales almost beat Rossi to turn one but the Italian held on. However, it was further down the field where the action started to take place.

Pol Espargaro and Loris Baz came together on the 180mph approach to turn 2, bringing the pair down and catapulting them through the air. Both bikes were decimated as they bounced across the track, with Loris’ machine steaming on the side of the circuit. Baz was slapped down on the track and sprawled out as the other riders took action to avoid the carnage.

Eugene Laverty was the man of the moment as he passed Valentino Rossi into 2nd place by turn 8. The red flag came out just seconds later.

Pol Espargaro was stretchered off the track and Loris Baz was being treated on the circuit for injuries.

The restart got underway and this time Rossi and Crutchlow went head to head on the run to the first turn, with the gritty Brit beating the veteran Italian. Vinales passed the pair of them by turns 8 & 9 and that was the end of the battle for the lead. Rossi, Crutchlow, Marquez, Iannone and Pedrosa were now all embedded into the battle for the podium positions.

Iannone crashed out at Luffield, ending what had been a disastrous British GP for the effervescent Italian. Rossi and Marquez then endured a head to head, similar to the controversial clash at Sepang last season. Elbow to elbow and touching for three laps, the two exchanged positons nearly 10 times.

Marc and Cal also had a few close shaves, with Woodcote corner being the closest of them all, when Cal put Marquez on the kerb as he blasted his way underneath the four-time champion. However, with two laps to go, Marquez went to make his move down at Stowe but collided with Crutchlow, ran wide and rejoined the track back in 5th.

Vinales came through Woodcote corner and took his 17th win and his first in the premier class. It was Suzuki’s first in 9 years and their first dry weather race win since 2001 and Sete Gibernau at Valencia. Crutchlow held off a sensational last lap charge from Valentino Rossi to take 2nd at his home round.

An incredible day of racing, one of which was history making. Maverick Vinales becomes the seventh different winner in MotoGP. That has never happened before in the top class. It was also the first time in 9 years that four different makes of machinery have won a race. A historic day for motorsport and a sensational finish to an action packed British Grand Prix, just who will be the next winner of a MotoGP race this season?

Misano is the next fortress to conquer and you can join us next weekend @PitCrew_Online for live commentary of the races from 10am. Follow me personally @MotoGPKiko for more bike related stuff!

Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko