The MotoGP championship visited the Silverstone circuit this weekend, and we caught a glimpse of the dominant Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) from several years ago. From his pole position (his third in a row), to his Sunday charge off the front to build a five second cushion over second place less than halfway through the race, Quartararo looked like he frequently did during his championship season in 2021. But circumstances would not ultimately favor Quartararo. After a disappointing finish of 7th place during Saturday’s Sprint, Yamaha seemed to have everything sorted out for Sunday’s GP until the 12th lap of the race when a mechanical issue stopped Quartararo.
Saturday started with a predictable battle between the Marquez brothers for the Sprint win aboard their Ducatis. Alex took the checkered flag ahead of brother Marc, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) finishing third.
In Sunday’s race, after Quartararo crushed the competition in the first half, the Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi took control and won the race against second place Johann Zarco (Honda) and third place Marc Márquez, who narrowly edged out Franco Morbidelli (Ducati) for the final spot on the podium.
Marc Márquez leads the championship heading into the next round at Aragon. For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here. For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
it took am#73 only NINE seconds to dump it. his brother made it almost 3 1/2 minutes before throwing it away while leading. the next race is in spain. again. after only five weeks. i’m waiting for the decree that the ducatis shall be re-branded as bultacos.
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Bultaco does have the coolest Moto logo. My wife bought me a pair of $350 pants in Barcelona about ten years ago just for the logo. Darn things gotta be kicking around here somewhere. What I really wanted was the trials helmet that they had. Really nice, but they didn’t have my size.
I should really start riding trials again. Fantastic people. Salt of the earth.
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Looks like Silverstone is a track that a guy can bet on a soft front tire and win, like Bezzecchi did. Looking at the track layout, it doesn’t look a whole lot less boring than the rest of the tracks. But it must have some dynamic that let’s racers race a bit. I’ll have to monitor Silverstone races in the future.
Apparently Gene some guy crashed and his bike spewed oil all over the racing line bringing out a red flag before the finish of the third lap. A restart if within the rules. But yeah, somehow things seem to slant the Marquez way more often than it really should.
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Having seen the surface of Silverstone up close, it’s hard to believe that it would reward the soft compound choice (it’s EXTREMELY coarse pavement with lots of voids between “chunks”, it’s for drainage, I think) but I’m also reminded that the compounds are different from track to track. “Soft” means softest of the assortment available there, which might be harder/more durable for that venue.
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Gummy tires are a bit of a fad now days off road. I kind of like the ones I have run.
Four riders chose the soft with mixed results. But all of them made some tracks early on.
25% of the rider who chose soft won the race. Extra sack points awarded for rolling the dice from this domicile. Most interesting race result since Miller finished on slicks in the rain.
Yeah, Miller got sack.
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Pretty crazy race. Seems the stewards did what they were told to do to keep the Marquez brothers in the race. Sad. Glad though that neither was able to win. Bummer for FQ, but live by the sword, die by the sword- technology wise that is. Zarco is riding the wheels off that Honda. Hope he can keep it up. And now, the bankrupt KTM is the worst bike on the grid. Not surprised.
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