MotoGP 2013 - Round 12 - Silverstone
After qualifying on pole for the race, Marquez dislocated his left shoulder in the Sunday morning warmup and it was feared he may not be able to join the grid. Despite the injury, the Spanish rookie sensation still suited up for the race.
Qualifying
Marquez had set an incredible lap time of 2'00.691 to clinch pole position, his fifth of the season so far. Joining Marquez on the front row were reigning World Champion Factory Yamaha Racing's Lorenzo and Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow, who still managed to qualify third despite crashing twice in earlier practise sessions, followed by a third crash in the Sunday morning warmup.
Second row of the grid was made up of LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Factory Yamaha Racing's Valentino Rossi. Australia's Bryan Staring (Team GO&FUN Gresini Honda) qualified last in 23rd place.
Race
At the race start, Lorenzo got the jump ahead of polesitter Marquez, while Pedrosa fell back to fifth, behind Bradl and Rossi, and Crutchlow was even worse off the line, falling back to sixth.
While Lorenzo held off Marquez for the early laps, he could never open up a sizable gap, with the Honda rider seemingly biding his time before attempting a late-race pass, as he had done to Lorenzo in the previous round at Brno.
Away from the leading trio, Bradl, Rossi and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda) were having their own battle for the next-best placing, while behind them, Cal Crutchlow, seemingly restricted after his practise and warm up falls, was locked into a lonely seventh place.
The factory Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were joined in their race-long tussle by Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar ART, first of the CRT machines, and Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati) for the first fifteen laps of the 20-lap event.
In the final half dozen laps, both the Ducatis managed to catch, then pass Tech 3 Yamaha's Bradley Smith, but Dovizioso's good work was undone when he crashed on the penultimate lap.
At the head of the field, Marquez was riding right on Lorenzo's tail, and made a few faux moves, before outbraking the Yamaha rider at Brooklands corner to take the lead with three laps to go. This set up an enthralling final couple of laps, where Lorenzo retook the lead, then Marquez got it back again on the final lap, before Lorenzo finally prevailed at Luffield corner to take and hold the lead to the finish. Across the line, the pair were separated by just 81 thousandths of a second - the closest finish of the season so far.
Blaming a lack of rear grip, Pedrosa finished third, one and a half seconds behind, and never really in danger of taking the lead. A late race battle for fourth between Rossi and Bautista went the way of the Italian veteran, while Bradl finished in sixth place.
Crutchlow's hopes for a strong home race at Silverstone were undone by his crashes in practise and a poor start that saw him finish the final lap where he had finished the first - in seventh place. Hayden claimed eighth, with Smith and Espargaro, racing with a broken finger, completing the top ten. Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project CRT) crashed, while Staring finished the race in last place.
Lorenzo admitted in the post-race press conference that he had almost crashed in those dramatic final laps, and was overjoyed to win the race.
"This was one of the best races I've ever had," the defending MotoGP champion said. "It's a very important win. 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. I 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 then focus on Misano!"
With six rounds remaining, Marquez leads the championship on 233 points, and while his margin over Lorenzo was trimmed to 39 points (194), the gap to Pedrosa was increased to 30 (203). Rossi holds down fourth place on 156 points, with Crutchlow in fifth on 136. The championship top ten is completed by Bradl (113), Bautista (103), Dovizioso (96), Hayden (88) and Espargaro (68).
Round 13 of the MotoGP championship, the GP Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, takes place at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on September 15.
Post Race - Penalty points for Marquez
Following the race, it was announced that Marquez had been given two Penalty Points for not slowing down under yellow flags in the morning Warm-Up. Not to be confused with Championship Points, the penalty system introduced last year applies sanctions at certain thresholds. Any rider reaching four penalty points within a season starts the next race from the back of the grid, while seven points lead to a pit lane start and 10 points a race ban.
Images: motogp.com, Yamaha Racing
