Jorge Lorenzo was able to break Marc Marquez’ winning spree with a stunning victory at Silverstone. The Yamaha rider and Marquez were in a league of their own as the two battled it out on the final lap, when Marquez made a move at Brooklands, but Lorenzo retaliated and barged past when Marquez left the door slightly open.
To counteract Marquez’ never give up attitude, Lorenzo has been forced to become slightly more aggressive - less ‘butter’ and much more ‘hammer’ than he has been in the past.
To celebrate his fourth victory of the season Lorenzo had his hair cut in a mohawk.
“This was one of the best races I’ve ever had. I’m really happy and really pleased. It’s a very important win,” said Lorenzo. “I pushed from the beginning to try and open a gap, even more than in recent races but it was impossible. Marc never gives up, even if he’s a little bit injured after the warm-up. He overtook me three laps from the end so I studied him a little for one lap and I saw he was struggling in some braking so I overtook him on the corner where he crashed. pushed in the last lap to the maximum, I opened a little gap but I made a mistake in braking and almost crashed. When he overtook me three corners from the end I thought it was over again and second place but then he opened a little gap in the last corner so I thought ‘now or never’ and I tried and got it. To be honest I’m not thinking about the championship, I’m thinking just to enjoy this victory which was very special to get the focus on Misano.”
For the third consecutive time Valentino Rossi finished in fourth place. Despite a promising start - he was up to third in the first corner - but as usual with a full fuel tank and some lack of confidence in pushing hard on the first lap sent him back to six, gobbled up the three Honda riders.
Rossi was able to return and found himself battling with Alvaro Bautista again - he laughingly said its practice for when he will able to fight with the front runners - and pipped the Gresini rider again at the wire.
The Italian described his fourth place ‘like going to a party and finding that they won’t let you in,’ and the Italian also had to be taken back to his garage by Cal Crutchlow after running out of gas on the cool down lap.
“For me this result is a bit more positive than in Brno because this track is very difficult,” said Rossi. “Every time I come here I have a bad result, this time we worked in a different and better way but unfortunately it is not enough to stay with the first three guys. They were too strong. The fourth place is better than in Brno, but it is still a fourth place. I made a good start but in the first laps the other guys were a lot faster than me between the second and seventh lap, but the second half of the race was not so bad.
When the rear started to slide it is like we put less pressure on the front, where we have some problem, and I could enter the corners faster, but it was not enough.
When the rear started to slide it is like we put less pressure on the front, where we have some problem, and I could enter the corners faster, but it was not enough.
“We will continue to work hard, we never give up and are not so far now. We have a constant pace and we are nearly there but we need to go a bit faster, we still have to work to improve our pace. We made a modification between warm up and the race that gave me a better feeling with the front. Now we have a week of rest after thre back-to-back races and then Misano, which I like a lot, my home grand prix, where I’ve been on the podium with both the Yamaha and Ducati. I’m always fast at that track so we have to try and improve the result.”
Despite Lorenzo’s tremendous victory Rossi believes that the championship is out of his team mate’s reach as he would have to win the next six races against Marquez.
“The difference now is 39 points. First of all, Yamaha have to bring the gearbox as soon as possible. I do not think it’s possible for Jorge to win six races and Marquez arrive second in six races. The championship has six races to go but it is impossible they arrive one-two every race. If you wanna bet with me, I can bet. It’s difficult because the gap is large and Marquez is very strong. The M1 is a little bit in trouble compared to the factory Hondas.”
Following his crash during warm-up practice this morning their were some doubts that Marc Marquez could race after sustaining a dislocated shoulder - Andrea Iannone is still feeling the after effects of his Sachsenring shoulder injury - but when Dr. Costa said that the rookie arrived in the Clinica Mobile for treatment he was already chomping on the bit ready to return to action, you knew that Marquez was already in his never give up mode - and the hell with his injury after his left shoulder took a 22.55 g impact.
On an adrenaline high he battled with Lorenzo for the victory, but running slightly wide and letting the Yamaha rider through, consigned him to a still an excellent second, and even more accolades over another stellar performance.
“I’m very happy with how things went today,” said Marquez. “This morning when my shoulder popped out I thought that my weekend was over, but the doctors were able to put it back in place quickly and that allowed me to be up there at the front, fighting with Jorge.”
“I didn’t feel much pain, because I received an injection to dull the pain, but I was lacking strength and was feeling tired by the end. Despite all this, I was able to battle all the way until the final corner with Jorge, who eventually emerged victorious today. Congratulations to him! For me these 20 points are like a win!”
For the second time this season Dani Pedrosa could not take advantage of a rivals injury and finish higher up on the podium. Uncharacteristically the Repsol Honda rider had a bad start and was forced to make up lost ground, punishing excessively his tires in the process which did not allow him to entry the fray between Lorenzo and Marquez.
“I’m disappointed with the result today. I rode well but got a bad start and conceded a lot of seconds on the opening two laps, so I had to really push in order to recover ground,” said Pedrosa. “I gradually caught up with Marc and Jorge, but I wore my tyres out in the process and at the end of the race I lacked grip on the right-hand corners. I tried to calm down and slow my pace in order to lower the tyre temperature, although finally I wasn’t able to match their performance. That meant that when I attempted to pass the bike slid out a lot and I was unable to really get involved in the fight for the win. I will have to give it another go at Misano.”
