Quartararo sensational ahead of Rins and Aleix with first Aprilia podium
As in Q1, Enea Bastianini fell again in the warm-up. Not surprisingly, Marc Marquez had the second crash that weekend and again in Turn 8. In the end, it was Jake Dixon who packed the trio on Sunday morning before the drivers finished their final practice session before the race. After six different winners in the last 6 events, the question was whether there would be a new face at the top of the podium with, for example, pole sitter Pol Espargaró or perhaps Jorge Martin. It got interesting even before the start. There was an announcement that quickly made the rounds of the paddock, and it concerned the replacement of Frankie Morbidelli, who had been out for a long time, at Petronas Yamaha SRT.
Exciting news even before the start of the race
There was exciting news before the start when Yamaha race director Lin Jarvis announced that they were about to sign Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian will take over the bike of the long-term injured Morbido for the rest of this season and then compete with the Yamaha customer team with a factory Yamaha for 2022. His manager confirmed this shortly afterwards, but at the same time emphasized that everything was not yet fixed and that some details still had to be settled. This puts a statement by Razlan Razali as team principal of the Sepang Racing Team in a special light, because he recently emphasized that they are a junior team. As a 36-year-old, the man from Forlimpopoli will be promoted back to the Yamaha youngster next season. This is strongly reminiscent of GRT Yamaha in WorldSBK, when Marco Melandri landed in the customer team at the age of 38 together with Sandro Cortese (himself over 30) in 2019.
Marquez’s idiotic action also throws Martin out of the running
Already in the first lap, Jorge Martin and the 6-time MotoGP world champion came to an end. First, the rookie had overtaken the Repsol Honda Star with a daring move. Then the Catalan tried to counter and stabbed the Madrilenian in front of the front wheel with a completely mindless action. The two collided in a right turn and the younger of the two was literally driven by his Pramac Ducati. Even Marc Marquez could not keep control of his Honda, and so the culprit was also on the ground. The race was over for both of them, and even the commentators on the race shook their heads uncomprehendingly. For the Repsol Honda man, it was already the third self-inflicted crash within 3 days this weekend. In the meantime, his team-mate was at the top, where the former superstar could have been involved with a little more patience.
Fabio Quartararo and his attack
After a good start, the World Cup leader was in second place, after which he lost two positions a little later. At the top a fight broke out between the two asparagus brothers Pol and Aleix. Behind them Bagnaia and Fabio, followed by Miller, Joan Mir, his Suzuki team-mate Rins and Zarco after an incomprehensible tire choice was only on P9. Then the hour struck for Quartararo, and the fast man from Nice easily overtook all three drivers in front of him and took over the command. His compatriot, on the other hand, was only twelfth after 9 laps and therefore had no chance of a podium finish. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider, on the other hand, kept ahead of the lead and by the middle of the race was already a good 3 seconds ahead of his pursuers. It all looked like a demonstration by the Frenchman, as had already been seen at the Portuguese Grand Prix in the third round on April 18 of that year. Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) ahead of Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) were two of the drivers who finally managed to convince again after many setbacks
The battle for the podium and redemption for Aprilia
In the meantime, behind Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins passed Pol and Aleix Espargaró one after the other. While Miller, Mir and Bagnaia were already more than 1.5 seconds behind, LRC Honda man Alex Marquez was on the advance as well. Instead of his brother, the younger of the two was able to fully convince this time, and he grabbed the Italian in the last eight round. Jack Miller passed Pol two laps later when he had to take a far right turn to catch her. Shortly afterwards, Bagnaia was also cashed by Brad Binder, bringing the South African to position 8. Miller, on the other hand, was the only serious opponent of Quartararo in the title fight and was the only one with a chance to fight for a podium. The Australian attacked on the last lap too, but Aleix regained 3rd position and behind a phenomenal winner Quartararo and Suzuki Ass Rins came second ahead of the Catalan compatriot with his first podium for Aprilia. This is likely to include his future team-mate Maverick Viñales, who has been sacked at Yamaha.
The winners and losers of the race
In addition to the pilots on the podium, especially Jack Miller, pole sitter Pol Espargaró and Brad Binder together with his surprisingly strong brand colleagues Iker Lecuona and Alex Marquez were the ones who, along with Petrux, were able to convince with their performances as tenth. Johann Zarco had clearly deprived himself of the chance for a top position with his risky tire choice and was clearly one of the losers in eleventh place, together with Joan Mir in P9 and Pecco Bagnaia in 14th. The only consolation for the Pramac Ducati driver was that he hardly lost any points on the latter and the Suzuki drivers. In the fight for the title, however, things look much worse for all three after the twelfth round in England than before. Unfortunately, after a good performance on Saturday, Valentino Rossi and the two Yamaha substitutes Crutchlow and Dixon were also unable to fully convince. The same is true of Miguel Oliveira, who has plummeted since the double race in Spielberg, while all three of his KTM brand colleagues made it into the top ten.
The MotoGP Grand Prix of England in numbers
Scandalous breakdown of the Dorna with the live app and stream
Just before the premier class race, the Dorna live-streaming platform went on strike. You have to imagine that the customers pay well over 100 euros for it and were suddenly offline. After the Moto3 GP was still working, practically all subscribers suddenly received the message that they had to buy a new subscription. After the performance problems of this sinfully expensive offer in the last races, this was only the culmination of all embarrassments and an absolute and bottomless cheek towards the customers of Dorna. An angry fan sent us his screenshot of it, and we can well imagine his anger. Since he comes from Germany, he only has the option to switch to Servus TV. But the Austrian broadcaster often goes on advertising and so its viewers missed several crucial scenes in Spielberg, of all places.
The Silverstone Circuit
The status of the World Championship
P, Rider, Bike, Nat, Points
1, Fabio QUARTARARO, Yamaha, FRA, 206
2, Joan MIR, Suzuki, SPA, 141
3, Johann ZARCO, Ducati, FRA, 137
4, Francesco BAGNAIA, Ducati, ITA, 136
5, Jack MILLER, Ducati, AUS, 118
6, Brad BINDER, KTM, RSA, 108
7, Maverick VIÑALES, Yamaha, SPA, 95
8, Miguel OLIVEIRA, KTM, POR, 85
9, Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia, SPA, 83
10, Jorge MARTIN, Ducati, SPA, 64
11, Alex RINS, Suzuki, SPA, 64
12, Marc MARQUEZ, Honda, SPA, 59
13, Takaaki NAKAGAMI, Honda, JPN, 58
14, Pol ESPARGARO, Honda, SPA, 52
15, Alex MARQUEZ, Honda, SPA, 49
16, Franco MORBIDELLI, Yamaha, ITA, 40
17, Danilo PETRUCCI, KTM, ITA, 36
18, Enea BASTIANINI, Ducati, ITA, 35
19, Iker LECUONA, KTM, SPA, 33
20, Luca MARINI, Ducati, ITA, 28
21, Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha, ITA, 28
22, Stefan BRADL, Honda, GER, 11
23, Dani PEDROSA, KTM, SPA, 6
24, Lorenzo SAVADORI, Aprilia, ITA, 4
25, Michele PIRRO, Ducati, ITA, 3
26, Tito RABAT, Ducati, SPA, 1
The combined calendar for MotoGP and WorldSBK
Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).
No Comments Yet