2015 British MotoGP: Just what the Doctor ordered

A resurgent Jorge Lorenzo headed to the British Grand Prix as the championship leader for the first time in the 2015 season. But it was Marc Marquez who stole the thunder as he posted a blistering fast lap to grab pole ahead of Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi. The race day was a complete contrast to the sunny Saturday afternoon of qualifying and Rossi topped the sheets during free practice prior to the race in wet conditions. There was lot of drama prior to the start of race, with officials declaring it a dry race, riders went out for a sighting lap and headed straight to the pits to switch to wet-spec bikes. It was chaos as riders tried to do a pit lane start but given the narrow pit exit, red flag was out and officials re-started it as a wet race. As the lights went off, Jorge Lorenzo made a good start to lead the race with Marquez second, Pol Espargaro third and Rossi slipping down to fourth. Pedrosa made a dreadful start and lost few places in the opening set of corners. Jack Miller made a brilliant lunge as he rose up from 16th position to eighth place in the opening lap itself. Marquez was swift to respond and regained second position while Rossi followed suit and grabbed third position from Espargaro.

The Italian rider showcased his supreme race pace as he passed Marquez and in a matter of few corners, lined up Lorenzo to grab the race lead. Lorenzo seemed to be visibly unhappy with the bike as Marquez also passed him for second place. Further down the grid, there was lot of action as Cal Crutchlow was up in fourth place and seemed destined for a podium finish as he closed in on Lorenzo. Sadly that wasn’t to be; Miller lost his front under braking and knocked Crutchlow out of the race in a heartbreaking manner to the disappointment of British fans.

Up ahead, Rossi and Marquez broke free from the trailing pack of riders thereby showcasing their riding prowess under testing wet track conditions. It was turning out to be a disastrous race for Lorenzo as he was soon passed by the Italian duo of Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso while Pedrosa was closing down on him. Marquez was within striking distance of Rossi as less than 0.3seconds separated them. With 12 laps of the race remaining, Lorenzo was relegated to sixth place and there was a possibility of him losing out valuable points in the standings. The pecking order remained unchanged until the 12th lap of the race. In his pursuit to overtake Rossi, Marc Marquez crashed out of the race which possibly also ended his hopes of a third consecutive premiere class title.

With Marquez out, Rossi’s victory seemed apparent at Silverstone. Dovizioso and Petrucci were still engrossed in the battle for second position and with few laps remaining; Petrucci emerged victorious in the scuffle. In the closing stage of the race there was drama as Petrucci started shaving off Rossi’s lead and the gap narrowed down to just 1.5seconds. Gladly for Rossi fans there was no twist in the plot as the MotoGP legend claimed his first premier class win at Silverstone and among his most important victories of his career. Petrucci registered his first MotoGP podium finish with a well deserved second place and was followed by Dovi and Lorenzo. With this win Rossi now leads the championship by 12 points as they head to his home race at Misano. While Lorenzo should consider himself lucky that Marquez, Crutchlow and Miller crashed as they had better race pace than him and the championship advantage of Rossi could have been superior.