Lorenzo dominates at Silverstone as Title challengers stumble

Jorge Lorenzo ran away with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this afternoon, storming home to win by 6.743 seconds to take his first UK win in the Premier Class. The Fiat Yamaha Team’s sole representative in the absence of the injured Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo led from the first lap to come home ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Ben Spies, who took his maiden podium in MotoGP.

The Mallorcan got a strong start from pole position and led out of turn one but it was not all plain sailing as he became embroiled in a feisty first-lap battle with Dani Pedrosa. The pair traded the lead several times but it was Lorenzo who eventually led over the line and he was unchallenged from there on in, gradually extending his lead lap-by-lap and leaving his rivals trailing in the wake of his blue and white M1. With two laps remaining the gap to Dovizioso stood at more than eight seconds but Lorenzo slowed down on the final two laps to ensure he came home safely, which he duly did to the delight of the 70,000 British fans who are quickly adopting the spirited Spaniard as one of their own.

His third win of the season and another 25-point haul extends Lorenzo’s lead to 37 points over Dovizioso in second, with Pedrosa now third. The absent Rossi falls to fourth in the championship but Lorenzo’s consistency ensures that the Fiat Yamaha Team still leads the Teams’ standings and Yamaha the Manufacturers’. The MotoGP paddock now faces a quick turnaround in order to get to Assen in time for next weekend’s Dutch TT, which is as always a Saturday race.

Jorge Lorenzo – 1st, 41’34.083
“This was an important day for me and an important win, because I felt so strong and I enjoyed riding my Yamaha so much. I had a different feeling today; I felt that it was going to be a good race. It was quite hard to be fast at the start and the first lap with Dani was difficult, but once I got past him I felt very relaxed and comfortable. I thought he would follow me for a bit longer but he didn’t and then I was on my own, so I just had to focus on myself; I didn’t even know who was behind me! I never dreamt of taking three wins from five races but here we are and I am feeling very strong mentally at this moment. I want to thank my team, Yamaha and Bridgestone for this victory. The Beatles celebration was something fun for the fans, I love their music and I thought it was nice to make a homage to them, since we’re in England!”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager Jorge Lorenzo
“This was a great performance by Jorge. The start was a little bit interesting, with us on the hard Bridgestone and some of the others on the softer one, but Jorge rode so well, kept his head and brought it home safely. Our bike is working very well and it was great to see Spies taking a podium on the Yamaha too, well done to him. It is impressive to have a 37-point gap at this stage but now we have four more races in very close succession so we can’t relax. Well done to Jorge and to everyone for today.”

Spies storms to maiden Silverstone podium

Ben Spies stormed to a stunning debut MotoGP podium for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team this afternoon after a thrilling battle at the spectacular Silverstone circuit.Competing in only his ninth MotoGP race, Spies was locked in an early battle with fellow rookie Marco Simoncelli for sixth place before he became embroiled in an epic fight for second place.

Spies passed Dani Pedrosa on lap nine and then launched a brilliant pursuit of the group in front dicing for second that included Andrea Dovizioso, Randy de Puniet and fellow American Nicky Hayden. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider stalked the trio befo re he began a breathtaking late attack, firstly overtaking de Puniet for fourth place on lap 17. That clinical pass left Spies hounding Hayden’s Ducati and the 25-year-old timed his crucial attack to perfection, the Texan ignoring the discomfort of a small fracture in his left ankle that he aggravated in a big qualifying crash yesterday.

Spies produced a daring overtake on Hayden at the fast Abbey Corner on the final lap and then defended supremely under immense pressure to claim third and his first premier class rostrum. The result moved Spies into seventh place in the overall world championship standings with 36-points and helped the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team close the gap on fourth place in the all-important Team World Championship classification.

Texan team-mate Colin Edwards rode a determined 20-lap race after a difficult w eekend where he never found the optimum setting with his YZR-M1 machine. He also encountered a repeat of the arm pump issue that hindered him at the last round in Mugello, but he was satisfied having rode to a creditable ninth position to maintain his record of scoring points in every race so far in 2010.

Ben Spies – 3rd +7.097 sec.
“I didn’t expect to get my first podium so quickly, especially after yesterday which wasn’t the best for me. I got a decent start but once I got by Dani and Simoncelli I just tried to stay on the back of the group battling for the podium. Once I realised I could stay in contention I just tried to save the rear tyre as much as I could and it all worked out. The last few laps I pushed as hard as I could and made some good passes and it is great for Yamaha and the Monster Tech 3 Team. I’m also pretty happy about it too and this is good for my confidence. That last lap was difficult to pass Nicky but I got a really good drive onto the back straight and tried to pass him at Stowe Corner but he came back by. On the next straight I managed to get by him and then had to ride quite defensively on the last part of the lap. I was on the edge but I had to go for the podium and it worked out. It will be hard to duplicate this but right now I’ll let it sink in and make the most of it. But on this day I can say I was the third best rider in the world and it is a good feeling.”

Colin Edwards – 9th +27.954 sec.
“I don’t want to be finishing in ninth at all but honestly I’m reasonably happy with the way I rode and it was a lot better than I expected after what has been a tough weekend. I’m still a fair way behind the top group but I had so many problems this weekend that even a top ten was looking lik e a difficult result to achieve. I didn’t leave anything out there and I went better than I did in qualifying but it was still not easy. The bike isn’t agile enough and having to muscle it around gave me a small arm pump problem, but not as bad as Mugello. If I could get the bike to go where I want it to go I could save lots of time, but we’ve got some ideas for the future. It was a bit of a lonely race but I rode as hard as I could for as long as I could. I want to congratulate Ben though because he did an awesome job and I’ve got nothing but admiration for him. He showed today what a great rider he is and it is great for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team to be back on the podium.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager
“We knew Ben really liked this circuit and we thought he could do a good race. But he rode an incredible race because he didn’t get a fantastic start but he was v ery aggressive in the first two laps and got himself into contention. He never let that group in front of him go away and we know his strength is on worn tyres, so we expected him to hang in until the end. He was quickest on track at one stage but I was worried a little bit because Casey was catching quite quickly. But he kept his cool and made some good passes and the best was on the last lap to beat Nicky. It his first podium in MotoGP and certainly not his last because he is such a bright talent for the future. I’d like to say thanks to Yamaha and to Bridgestone and also to the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team because since the start of the season it has been a little bit up and down. But we’ve never stopped trying hard and today we got a big reward. Colin rode a steady race and as always he never stopped trying to improve his situation and we know better results will come for him soon. Now we look forward to Assen that both Colin and Ben like a lot and we are confident of anot her competitive weekend.”

—  Ducati Report

Ducati Marlboro Team’s engineers did an excellent job in this morning’s warm-up to put Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner in a position to challenge for podium finishes in this afternoon’s British Grand Prix.

They missed out for differing reasons – Stoner paying the price for his bad start, leaving him in last place in the first corner – and Hayden making just a small mistake on the final lap to concede third place after fighting throughout the race for second.

Stoner made up ten positions to take fifth place but lost too much time when held up behind Dani Pedrosa to make a decisive attack at the end.

NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th
“It’s a pretty frustrating result because the team did a great job with the bike after the warm-up and it was a lot of fun to ride. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good start – we’ve been having some little clutch problems and didn’t get away well. The race was really fun, everybody was going back and forth, I was able to make some moves in the corners but just didn’t really have the top speed in the straights. It’s hard for me to dress this result up because I’m not happy to finish fourth again but the good thing is we were in the hunt again. We did something good with the bike today so hopefully it will work at Assen, a circuit I love.”

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 5th
“I’m not happy with fifth place because we were capable of more today. I don’t know if we could have challenged Jorge for the win but we definitely found something in warm-up and made more improvements in the race, but we paid the price for a terrible start. As I let the clutch out the bike started jumping and hopping around and I had to pull the clutch in and go again, by which time everybody was past. The tyres were fresh on before the warm-up lap so in the early laps I had to be really careful before being able to start overtaking and I lost a lot of seconds. The race then was fun, we were able to find a good rhythm and to make our way forward but the time lost at the beginning prevented us by fighting for the podium.”

VITTORIANO GUARESCHI Team Manager
“Even though we didn’t make the podium I think both Nicky and Casey had a good race today. Casey paid the price for a very bad start when the bike jumped as he let the clutch out but he put together a great fight back and only missed out on the podium because he ran out of time. Still, he made ten overtakes in a very determined performance. Nicky also paid a heavy price for the only small mistake he made at the end, missing the podium as a result, but he was up there again at a new circuit, working well with the team to find a good set-up.”

—  HRC Report

Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V) rode a superbly aggressive race to take a brilliant second-place finish in today’s British Grand Prix, his best dry-race result in the premier-class. The Italian – who won last year’s rain-hit British GP at Donington Park – headed a frantic four-way contest for the runner-up spot while Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) ran away out front to increase his World Championship points lead.  Today’s event was the first British motorcycle Grand Prix at Silverstone since 1986, the high-speed track enjoyed by all the riders despite its bumpy surface.

Dovizioso wasn’t the only Honda rider in the thick of it; Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V) fought back and forth with his fellow RC212V rider, eventually slipping to the rear of the group to finish sixth, just behind Casey Stoner (Ducati) who had fought back from a woeful start. Italian Grand Prix winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) rode bravely to eighth place despite grip issues and considerable discomfort from the two tumbles he suffered during qualifying and morning warm-up.

The first lap was hectic with Spain’s two biggest MotoGP stars stealing the show: Lorenzo led into the first corner, Pedrosa moved ahead at Stowe, Lorenzo was back in front at Vale, Pedrosa took the lead again at Abbey, then Lorenzo retook first place into the very next corner, Farm.
After that excitement, Lorenzo wasn’t headed again.

Pedrosa soon discovered that he was lacking grip – his RC212V pushing the front and spinning the rear – so he wasn’t able to maintain his first lap aggression and he was gradually pushed back down the order by de Puniet, Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden (Ducati). This was the battle for second place, joined later in the race by rookie Ben Spies (Yamaha). Dovizioso finally began to make second place safe in the second half of the race when he worked extra hard to eke a small advantage over his pursuers, aware that the fast, open nature of Silverstone allows riders to close gaps and make passes more easily than at many other tracks.

Dovizioso was never completely secure, the former 125 World Champion finally crossing the line just three tenths of a second ahead of Spies, who passed Hayden with six corners to go to score his maiden MotoGP podium. Dovi’s fourth podium from the first five races moves him into second place in the World Championship points standings.

Privateer de Puniet had qualified a brilliant second and although he missed out on a podium result he was happy to continue his record of strong top-six finishes. De Puniet chose the softer front tyre option and perhaps that hindered him in the final laps, because today’s track temperature was warmer than the last two days.

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V), who was also hurting from a heavy fall yesterday morning, got the better of Pedrosa in the last third of the race to finish seventh, his best MotoGP result so far. Super Sic even ran at the rear of the group fighting for second place, until he had to ease his pace slightly in the last few laps.

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) crashed out at the Brooklands left-hander on the very first lap. Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP RC212V) didn’t take the start after a nasty highside in morning warm-up left him with heavy bruising to his back. He was examined in the circuit medical centre and then taken to hospital in Oxford for a CT scan.

Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing, Suter) won his first Grand Prix victory at Silverstone this afternoon, winning a thrilling four-man contest in the Moto2 race. The Frenchman beat Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2, Moriwaki) by just five hundredths of a second, with Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team, Suter) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team, Suter) a few metres behind. The top four were covered by less than two tenths of a second.

Once again, the Honda-powered Moto2 series retained its reputation for unpredictability with the three winners of the first four races not even in contention for a podium finish here. Losail winner Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP, Suter) finished sixth, Jerez and Le Mans victor Toni Elias (Gresini Racing Moto2, Moriwaki) tenth – after making up four places in the last three laps – and Mugello winner Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up, Speed Up) 12th.

Most of the race was dominated by Cluzel, team-mate Claudio Corti (Forward Racing, Suter) and Simon. The trio had a two second gap on the rest of the pack until Luthi caught them at two-thirds distance, with local hero Redding right behind him. Luthi’s charge had taken him from 17th to fourth in ten laps.

The last six laps were edge-of-the-seat entertainment, with Luthi working hard to pick off the three men in front of him. The former 125 World Champion finally hit the front on lap 16 of 18 and opened up a small lead while Corti tumbled out at Vale corner with one lap to go. On the final lap Cluzel ate into Luthi’s advantage, so that when the Swiss rider almost lost the rear into Vale, Cluzel pounced and took the lead.

Cluzel, who had crashed out of the two previous races, was delighted with his first GP victory, which moves him into seventh in the Moto2 points chase. Elias retains first place in the championship, 15 points ahead of Tomizawa, with Luthi a further seven points behind.

Today’s five-way second group battle was won by Alex Debon (Aeroport de Castello-Ajo, FTR) who crossed the line a fraction ahead of Tomizawa, Mike Di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar Team, Suter) and Xavier Simeon (Holiday Gym G22, Moriwaki). The group – which was covered by half a second at the flag – lost one rider on the last lap when Yonny Hernandez (Blusens-STX, BQR) crashed out.

Marcel Schrötter (Interwetten Honda 125 Team) finished just two places and a few seconds outside the points in the 125 race, which was won by Marc Marquez (Derbi)

HONDA MotoGP RIDER QUOTES
Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V): 2nd “I’m really happy with second in the race, and we also have second in the championship now so this reflects our strong start to the season. In the middle of the race I saw many riders were closing in behind me and so I tried to push at 100 per cent to get a gap and try to avoid a fight on last lap. Corners 13 and 14 towards the end of the lap are really slow and you can see clearly the riders that are behind, and also here it would be easy to be overtaken there on the last lap if they were too close, so it was important to get a gap, which I managed to do. I’m so pleased with the season so far and I’d like to say thank you to Honda and to the team for the work they are doing. We still need to improve so that we can battle for race wins, but we are one step closer today and it’s a good result for us at the start of a busy period of races. Next stop is Assen and we must move forward again so that we have a chance of winning there.”

Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V): 6th
“It was a good race and I had fun but, like in Mugello, I finished behind the leading group. It’s a pity but I feel satisfied anyway. I took a very good start from the front row and I could rely on my machine as we lapped consistently fast for the whole weekend. With four laps to go the front started to move too much because we raced on front soft tyre [which was the right choice] but probably today’s ground temperature was a bit higher compared to the rest of the weekend. We had a great race weekend and I am a big fan of this new circuit. The guys gave me an incredible machine here and we can be pleased about this result as we battled for the podium. In my opinion we moved a step forward in this week end and will do our best to keep the sixth position in the world classification.”

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V): 7th “We have definitely taken another important step forward here. I got a good start and stuck with the group fighting for the podium for the majority of the race. I was able to run with Spies and close the gap right down but they were able to keep their pace to the end of the race whereas I struggled at the end as my tyres went off. It was nice to have them in my sights until two laps from the end though and I feel like I have really improved. I had fun today – hopefully next time it can be even closer to the front.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V): 8th
“Well, eighth is obviously a disappointing result because we were looking quite strong here yesterday and I was confident. However, we were lacking some grip from the beginning of the race and we couldn’t replicate the pace we were able to achieve in practice. The rear was spinning and sliding quite a lot and the front was pushing which meant that, even though I was pushing really hard, I wasn’t able to maintain my pace. It was frustrating because I could see the riders in front and I could stay with them but it was impossible to fight for position. The one positive thing from the weekend is that even though I had two crashes I wasn’t injured and I didn’t feel pain during the race today. This means we can quickly put this weekend behind us and move on to the next races – the first one being Assen next weekend.”

Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V): DNF “I made a really good start but then made a mistake on the exit of a corner on cold tyres. I was behind Spies and felt I was faster than him so I attacked two or three times but couldn’t get through. Then I tried a pass on the inside but I hit a bump, lost the front and there was no way I could save it. I’m disappointed because I wasn’t even pushing that hard, I was just waiting for Spies to give me a chance to pass him. It’s a shame!”

—  Suzuki Report

Rizla Suzuki finished the Silverstone Grand Prix weekend in a slightly more positive frame of mind after improving weather conditions gave both riders the chance to ride their GSV-Rs nearer the limit.

Capirossi made a good start and was up inside the top 10 during the first few laps as he tried to salvage something from a tough home GP for the Rizla Suzuki team. He looked like he would be involved for a scrap for a top-10 finish, but as he braked for the first corner on the 14th lap he lost the front of his bike, forcing him to let off the brakes. Capirossi headed for the gravel trap at high speed and was unable to keep his bike upright and crashed. Sadly he was unable to continue and his weekend finished early as he walked away unhurt.

Bautista fought the whole race to learn new reference points on his Suzuki GSV-R as his increased pace altered the whole track from the Spaniard’s perspective. He too looked like being involved in the battle for 10th, but as the race wore on his recent injury took its toll on his strength and he crossed the line in 12th position.

Today’s first MotoGP race to be held at the Silverstone circuit in England was watched by 70,123 fans at trackside. They saw a commanding performance from World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, as he steered his factory Yamaha to a victory by almost seven seconds.

Rizla Suzuki will now go straight to Assen in the Netherlands for the next round of the MotoGP World Championship, to be held in just six days time on Saturday 26th June.

Álvaro Bautista: “For me the race seemed like my first free practice, because the conditions were different and I was able to start to ride like I wanted. I didn’t have any reference points with the better conditions so I had to learn them in the race and it was quite difficult to do that. I am quite happy because I think we have made one step forward with the bike in cold conditions and during the race I was able to ride consistently quicker than my best lap in qualifying. Also my shoulder feels much better, it was a bit painful in the last few laps, but I am pleased with how I’m recovering. Today has been the first day I’ve been able to push since my injury and I hope that for the next races I will get stronger physically and get more confidence on the bike.”

Loris Capirossi:  “I think that the whole weekend has been very tough for us, but today we did have better conditions and it gave me a better feeling on the bike. My start was not too bad, but I still couldn’t ride as hard as I wanted and with seven laps to go I lost the front during braking, so I had to let off the brakes and I was going into the corner too fast and I crashed in the gravel. It has been a bad weekend because we just couldn’t find what we were looking for to make us go quicker and get the grip we wanted. I feel so sorry for the whole team and for all the people that came to support us because we just didn’t give a very good show at our home race. Sometimes races are like this and you have to just keep going till it gets better!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager: “It’s been a really difficult weekend and it would have been unrealistic to expect things to change drastically for the race. Having said that, both the guys pushed as hard as they dared and at least we were in the group fighting for 10th place – which was better than practice or qualifying. The slightly warmer temperatures helped us a little bit, but it meant that the practice from the rest of the weekend was meaningless and for the riders it almost felt like the first decent run of the weekend.  Thanks to all our sponsors and partners for all their support over the weekend and we’ll be pushing Suzuki to deliver the improvements we need, as soon as possible!”

—  Bridgestone Report

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard (asymmetric)
Jorge Lorenzo was the runaway winner of the British Grand Prix, taking a commanding victory for the Fiat Yamaha Team. With the hottest track temperature of the weekend, Lorenzo used his softer option front and rear slicks to good effect, setting a fast and consistent pace throughout and the fastest lap of the race which becomes a new lap record at this new circuit.

Behind Lorenzo the battle for the podium was intense as Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso pushed hard on his softer slicks to stay ahead of Ben Spies of Monster Yamaha Tech3, who scored his first MotoGP podium, and the Ducati Team duo of Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner. The four were split by less than a second entering the final lap.

Every rider opted for the softer option front slick and only Nicky Hayden, Randy de Puniet and Dani Pedrosa chose the hard compound rear. The warmer track temperature for the race made tyre selection harder for the riders though. Jorge Lorenzo set his fastest time on the fourth lap of the race using a softer rear, indicating good warm-up performance, whereas Casey Stoner set the second fastest time of the race on lap 17, also on the softer rear, demonstrating good durability. Interestingly, even the hard compound rear showed good warm-up performance as Randy de Puniet recorded the fourth fastest lap of the race on only his second lap.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director, Bridgestone Motorsport
“We saw a fantastic race today and I’d like to send my congratulations to Jorge and Fiat Yamaha for their dominant victory. Silverstone have produced a very impressive venue for this MotoGP round and the new circuit layout gave us some very close and exciting battles today. MotoGP remains to be a very strong marketing tool for Bridgestone and we wish to express our commitment to continuing support for this series. It is also valuable for us that Dorna and the FIM are embracing the need to incorporate safety and environmental responsibility into their future plan.”

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“The track conditions were different again today as the temperature was the highest of the weekend, but we saw that our medium and hard compound rear slicks had good performance overlap in terms of durability, warm-up and grip. The increased track temperature made it difficult for teams to get the right setup and choose the right tyre option for the race as they only have data for this track from yesterday and Friday when it was cooler, but I am happy with the performance of both specs and I can say that I am satisfied with our tyre compound choice for Silverstone.”

Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team – Race Winner “Today was a very important day for us, for the race win and also for the championship. It was difficult to go fast at the beginning and I had to be very concentrated not to make a mistake. The rear tyre was sliding and I was just enjoying myself and focusing on my race. I had a different feeling today that said to me it could be a good day.”

Jules Cluzel celebrated the first win of his World Championship career after a stunning Moto2 race, riding his Forward Racing Suter to victory ahead of Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Racing) and Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar).

From the start Fonsi Nieto (G22 Holiday Gym) flew up to third from tenth on the grid as he wasted no time in pushing his way forward, and with the pack tightly bunched on the opening lap there were a pair of fallers as front row starter Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) and Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) – third in the Championship standings before the race – collided and crashed out.

The Forward Racing pair of Claudio Corti and Cluzel, who started from the front two spots on the grid, became embroiled in a battle with Nieto at the head of the race, a fight which Simón soon became involved in as Nieto’s challenge faded shortly after.

Cluzel, Corti and Simón threatened to become slightly detached at the front as the scrap for fourth involving a host of riders took place, but Lüthi and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) – who had fallen to 17th after the start – began to regain ground as they swallowed up track behind the trio.

Lüthi’s superb pace meant that by lap 12 of 18 a gap that had stood at almost two seconds to the front three had been diminished as he and Redding caught the leading group, making for a fantastic final third of the race which became a marvellous five-way contest.

Former 125cc World Champion Lüthi pushed his way to the front as he rode an unforgiving and admirable race and with two laps to go Corti crashed out as he lost his Suter bike going through Turn 8, the entry to the chicane approaching Club. The Italian returned to the race to finish 30th.

The final lap provided great drama and as Lüthi ran wide going into the corner where Corti had crashed shortly before Cluzel went through on him to take the lead, holding it until the finish line to take his debut World Championship win. Lüthi and Simón both took their second podiums of the campaign with second and third places respectively, with Redding achieving his best result of the season so far with fourth in his home GP.

Debón, Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP), Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar), Xavier Simeon (Holiday Gym G22), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) and Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) completed the top ten, as Yonny Hernández (Blusens-STX) and Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept) both crashed out on the final lap.

Elías remains at the top of the Championship standings on 80 points, with Tomizawa still second on 65. Lüthi climbs to third on 58, with Simón and Corsi both on 51 in fourth and fifth.

MOTO2 RIDER QUOTES
Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing, Suter): winner “I’m very happy with this win, especially after my mistakes at the last two races where I was fast but crashed out. Here I decided to stay on the bike and work for the race. I tried to be clever, rather than worry out being absolute fastest. You don’t need to be in front all the time, but when you are, you can push, but being first isn’t everything, it’s important to get points. I felt so good on the bike in the race, so I have to thank my team because we made some changes in warm-up and they didn’t feel so good.
They worked hard this morning and in the race I was able to push hard.”

Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2, Moriwaki): 2nd “Things got a bit tight at the first corner – two riders in front of me touched, so I had to go wide and that lost me some positions. I worked hard to get back to the front. I was lucky the front group stayed together because once I had got clear of the other riders I had a clear track in front of me, so I was able to put in some good lap times and catch the group. The bike was good, so I could fight. When I was in front on the last lap I didn’t know if the others were close enough to use my slipstream, so I pushed hard to stay ahead. In the end I pushed too hard and had a big moment at Vale. Cluzel got past me and after that there was no chance for me to get past again.”

Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar Team, Suter): 3rd “I’m happy with this podium, especially because we had a bad weekend at Mugello. This weekend we have been up front all the time. In the race I got a good start and was able to get into the lead after a few laps and push hard. But it was impossible to break away from Cluzel and Corti. In the final part I was waiting for the last lap. I had a plan to get back into first place but there was no chance. Anyway, I’m happy with this podium and the points. The good thing is that after the problems we had at Mugello that the bike felt really nice here.”

World Championship Positions:
1 ELIAS 80, 2 TOMIZAWA 65, 3 LUTHI 58, 4 SIMON 51, 5 CORSI 51, 6 GADEA 47, 7 CLUZEL 46,
8 IANNONE 42, 9 DEBON 37, 10 TALMACSI 34, 11 TAKAHASHI 21, 12 ROLFO 21,
13 REDDING 18, 14 NIETO 17, 15 AEGERTER 15.

Marc Márquez took his second win of the season at Silverstone after a fierce battle with compatriot Pol Espargaro. Pole holder Márquez managed to pull away with Espargaro as they moved to almost three seconds ahead of Bancaja Aspar riders Nico Terol and Bradley Smith before the halfway point of the race had even arrived.

Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) joined the Bancaja Aspar duo shortly after and managed to go through on both, taking third spot as the trio began a fight for third place whilst Márquez and Espargaró extended the distance to the chasing group even further.

With four laps to go Márquez and Espargaró were over ten seconds clear as Terol, Smith and Vázquez continued the scrap for third. Vázquez ran wide however and appeared to drop off enough momentarily to give Smith and Terol some breathing space.

The final laps provided an edge-of-the-seat finish and the fight between Márquez and Espargaró became just that as the two touched twice while pushing one another to the limit. Further back Vázquez crashed as he touched tyres with Terol, allowing Smith enough space to get through and into third.

At the front a mistake from Espargaró two corners from the end saw him run wide, which gave Márquez enough room to get clear and take the win, eventually crossing the line 2.576s ahead of Espargaró who now leads the Championship by a single point from Terol. The Bancaja Aspar man finished fourth, behind team-mate Smith who secured his first podium of the season in front of a delighted home crowd and became the first non-Spaniard to make it into the top three this season.

Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team) completed the top eight, with British rider Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) tenth. Vázquez managed to remount his bike and cross the line in 11th.

World Championship Positions:
1 ESPARGARO 99, 2 TEROL 98, 3 MARQUEZ 82, 4 SMITH
61, 5 RABAT 50, 6 VAZQUEZ 49,
7 KOYAMA 45, 8 KRUMMENACHER 39, 9 CORTESE 36, 10 ZARCO 33, 11 WEBB 24,
12 MONCAYO 17, 13 MASBOU 17, 14 IWEMA 17, 15 FOLGER 10.