After a long summer vacation, the British Motorcycle Grand Prix was played in Silverstone. The victory in the Royal Class for the second race in a row after Assen was won by Francesco Bagnaia from the factory Ducati.
It should be noted that the events in Silverstone developed rapidly, and the weekend itself began with intrigue due to the need for the leader of the World Championship Fabio Quartararo from the Yamaha factory team to pass a penalty “long lap”, which should have thrown him back a few positions. But in free practice, the Frenchman honed this maneuver so much that, according to the calculations of the team, he would lose only a few tenths of a second and would immediately be able to return to the battle.
Evolution of the British Grand Prix
The qualification was won by Joan Zarco (Pramac Racing). After him, Quarararo started from the first line and Bagnaia took the start of the race fourth. Yamaha’s Long Lap Penalty strategy worked only partially: on lap 5 when Quarararo flew into a loop and then returned, he lost 3 positions; however, immediately after this event, Zarco, who was leading the race, fell on his side in a turn and dropped out of the race. Quartararo thus got back one of the lost positions – as planned in the team!
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However, in the absence of Zarco, Jack Miller immediately took the first position on the factory Ducati. Alex Rins from Suzuki also claimed the lead in the race, but Banyaya then entered the TOP 3. By the middle of the race, Bagnaia was already leading the race. It was not easy to hold the position, because Maverick Vinales was named one of the favorites by analysts for a reason – he caught up with the factory Ducati and forced a big fight on them, during the last laps it was not easy for Bagnaia to fend off Aprilia attacks. At the finish, they were separated by 0.426 seconds – in favor of Bagnaia.
Overall standings
Fabio Quartararo continues to hold first place in the general classification of riders, he has 180 points. Over the last two races, Fabio scored only 8 points in them and allowed his pursuers to significantly reduce the gap. Aleix Espargaro remained on the 2nd line – he has 158 points, and he is one of the most stable riders because he has earned points in every race since the beginning of the season: the average earnings of Aleix was more than 13 points per stage. The third and fourth places in the overall standings of the Italians are Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini (131 and 118 points, respectively). Bagnaia returns the points lost due to failures at the beginning of the season faster than others. He managed to reduce the gap from the MotoGP leader by 42 points in two races – very cool!