Silverstone MotoGP Images 2015 Gallery A
Silverstone MotoGP Images 2015 Gallery A – Images by AJRN
Rain-master Rossi re-takes championship lead at Silverstone
Valentino Rossi claims his fourth win of the season after a masterful ride in the wet, with Petrucci and Dovizioso completing the podium
Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi produced a fearless ride in the rain to claim his first ever victory at Silverstone, and open up a 12-point lead in the MotoGP World Championship standings over his teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi had earlier topped the wet Warm Up session, and there was drama before the lights even went out at Silverstone as it was originally declared a dry race, but rain on the grid prompted every rider to return to the pits on their warm up lap to swap for wets. This led to a 30-minute delay to allow the teams and riders to safely re-form back on the grid.
When the action started in anger, Rossi enjoyed a solid start, before moving his way up from 4th on the grid to take the lead on just the second lap. Rossi managed to pass his teammate and main title rival Lorenzo at Village corner, much to the delight of the 73,000 fans at the legendary Silverstone Circuit.
He then tried to break away at the front, with only Marc Marquez on the Repsol Honda able to stay with him. Lap after lap Rossi and Marquez pulled away at the front, opening up a gap of 7 seconds to the 3rd placed Petrucci by just the ninth lap. The 36-year-old Italian was setting a blistering pace in the dreadful conditions, and it proved too much for even Marquez. The reigning MotoGP World Champion crashed out on lap 13 at Copse Corner to effectively end any chance he had of defending his title. The Spaniard now trails Rossi by 77 points in the standings, with just 6 races remaining.
Marc Marquez – DNF – “The World Championship situation was already complicated before this Grand Prix, and now it is even more difficult, but it is also true that this was a race where we had to take a risk. I felt I had the race under control and I crashed out. It means zero points, but the fact that we were back up at the front again was the positive side of today.”
Without Marquez to push him, Rossi seemed to relax and at one point it seemed as if the chasing Ducati’s of Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso would close him down towards the end of the race. Petrucci had reduced the gap to just 1.6s with two laps remaining, but Rossi got a signal from his pit board and upped the pace once more. The ‘Doctor’ went on to take the race win by 3.010s.
Valentino Rossi – P1 – “I’m very happy and proud of this victory, it’s a great feeling! I think that the last race on the wet that I won was ten years ago. This morning I woke up feeling good, but my team also did a great job and my bike was fantastic already from the first lap of the warm up. I felt great and got more feeling and positive things from the bike, so I knew I could be competitive in the race. I fought a lot with Marc, which was very difficult. I kept trying to break away but he stayed with me. I saw that Marc crashed on the mega screen and I didn’t hear noise of his bike, so I already thought that maybe something had happened. After he crashed I slowed down, because I thought I had enough of an advantage but in reality Danilo wasn’t so far, so I had to recover my concentration and start to push, because if I didn’t he would catch me. This is my fourth victory of the season, so I’m very happy and it’s important for the championship. Today I was very fast, I had great confidence with the bike and it’s a fantastic victory at Silverstone, where I never won before, this is the first time!”
Octo Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci delivered an incredible ride to secure his first ever MotoGP podium as the leading Satellite rider. The Italian, starting from 18th on the grid, rode through the pack superbly before getting involved in an excellent battle for second with Dovizioso on the factory Ducati Team GP15. Petrucci’s GP14 is known as a good bike to ride in the wet and he made sure that he secured his best ever MotoGP career result to the delight of his team.
Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso (+4.117s) completed an all-Italian podium to equal his best result of the season in Assen. The former 125cc World Champion started from 12th on the grid but rode superbly in the tricky conditions to secure his 29th MotoGP Podium.
Andrea Dovizioso – P3 – “I am really pleased with this third place and I want to say thanks to my team, because we are working so hard to try and get back to being competitive once again. Today was not an easy day for many reasons: we started from the fourth row of the grid and I almost crashed at the start because the rear tyre suddenly lost grip and I found myself at the back of the field. Despite this I succeeded in making a good recovery, even getting up into second place. It was a really tough race, and Petrucci and I had a great battle, so I’m also happy for his excellent result. In the final stages we were taking too many risks when we were passing and repassing each other, and seeing as it was important for us to get back onto the podium, in the end I concentrated on holding onto my third place.”
Rossi’s main title rival and teammate Jorge Lorenzo (+5.726s) had a frustrating race. The double MotoGP World Champion led into the first corner, but found himself dropping back through the field at an alarming rate. At one point Lorenzo was as low as sixth before he seemed to recover and fought back to cross the line in fourth, limiting the damage to his title chances.
Jorge Lorenzo – P4 – “At the first start with the slicks the situation was very dangerous, so I was happy when it started raining more so we could start with the rain tyre. The feeling in the first three or four laps was good and I was riding well, but the other riders started going faster than me. Valentino and Marquez passed me and I was in third position losing time every lap. They had a better pace than me early on in the race and I couldn’t do anything to follow them. Suddenly, when entering the chicane, I almost had a big crash with Espargarò who made a incomprehensible move and it was a miracle I stayed on the bike. I was upset, but luckily I remained on the track and I tried to stay in third position, but Petrucci, Dovizioso and Pedrosa passed me. I was able to move faster and was getting better and passed Dani. In the last laps I arrived at Dovizioso, who made some mistakes, but it started to get colder and raining more. I completely lost my vision, because the visor was foggy and had to slow down and lost a chance at the third place, which was a pity. In the rain I didn’t have the same pace as Valentino and Marquez.”
Dani Pedrosa (+11.132s) on the second Repsol Honda battled hard throughout the race to secure fifth spot. The Spaniard was right in the mix for the podium during the race but started to drop back in the latter stages, eventually crossing the line over 5 seconds behind Lorenzo.
Dani Pedrosa – P5 – “To be honest, it was not a good day. I had a strange feeling with the bike in the rain; we did not have much grip and it was very delicate to ride. I made a mistake at the start because I didn’t get off the line well, and after that I never found a good pace either. I tried to do my best but the feeling was not good; I’m quite unhappy with the last few results. We will try to push harder at the next race at Misano to see if we can catch up, and be higher up the order than in recent races.”
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding (+25.467s) won the ‘Battle of the Brits’ as he pulled off his the best result of his MotoGP career in front of his passionate home support. His compatriot Bradley Smith on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha was a further second back, after he enjoyed a race long battle with his teammate Pol Espargaro, before the Spaniard crashed out at turn 3 on lap 14.
Scott Redding – P6 – “I always said that if I could get my best result here I’d be happy. I know that a lot of people crashed in the race but this is how it is sometimes. I struggled in the beginning; I just didn’t quite have the feeling I needed. Maybe I was a bit stiff and tense but I just couldn’t find the grip and the guys around me were able to drive away from me out of the turns. But after eight or nine laps I finally found a good rhythm and started to take more risks as I got the feeling with the bike back. Then I started to close in on Bradley, Aleix and Pol and when I got past I didn’t feel too bad at all. I wasn’t too comfortable in the rain this morning, but I took a risk in the race and it paid off. Overall, I’m happy with today’s result.”
Bradley Smith – P7 – “I have to be quite pleased with the end result as the conditions were far from ideal out there today but I did my best. I was a bit nervous on the grid about riding in the damp conditions as last year we struggled when it was wet, but we’ve improved the bike by more than 100% in terms of performance. Here, I was on average about 1.2 seconds a lap slower than the fastest guy, whereas in Aragon last year we were further behind in terms of times, so the team have done a fantastic job in giving me a bike that I can ride more confidently in the wet. I gave my absolute all to stay with the second group in order to try to fight for a podium, but at the end of the day they just had a bit more speed than me. So, I aimed to not make any mistakes and be as consistent as possible. I tried to hold off Redding in the final laps, as I really wanted to get the top six, but unfortunately he was too strong for me today. So overall, it’s a damage limitation in a way as we did the best that we could, yet I am now behind Dovizioso by 5 points in the championship standings. Therefore, it was not an ideal day, but not terrible at all either. I want to say thanks to all my fans who came out to cheer for me today and next up for us is Misano in two week’s time.”
Pol Espargaro – DNF – “It was a game of two halves as on one hand I am pleased with my performance yet at the same time I am disappointed because of the crash but we still need to look at the positives. I started the race well and I was running near the front as my rhythm was good and I was able to follow Jorge quite easily. I felt I was faster than him and I tried to overtake, but as this happened, I thought there was a chance that he could cut back across, as he ran wide. Therefore, I didn’t want to cause a collision as he is a factory Yamaha rider fighting for the championship, so I took evasive action to avoid touching him. As a result, I lost several positions and a lot of time. After that, I was behind my brother and I had to refocus plus concentrate again. I made up the time to Aleix and passed him as well as my teammate but as soon as I had opened up quite a significant gap to them, I made a mistake. I unfortunately lost the rear in the entry to the third corner which prevented me from finishing the race. Despite this, we have to take the positives of the weekend because we’ve made some really good progress, besides the crash, and we will take this momentum with us to the next race.”
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) finished in eighth ahead of the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR of Aleix Espargaro in ninth. Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista secured the team’s first top-ten finish of their return to the premier class.
Andrea Iannone – P8 – “It was not such a positive weekend from the point of view of the final result, but at least in the standings I was able to get closer to third place. We encountered a bit of difficulty throughout the three days and my bike was not easy to manage due to the bumps on the track, which created a lot of problems for us. In the race I struggled in particular with the rear when turning into the curves and above all at the start I was very slow. Then, as the laps went by, I reduced the amount of engine braking and the situation improved a lot, but I was never able to find the consistency that I would have liked.”
Aleix Espargaro – P9 – “After today’s race I can’t say I’m happy but I am satisfied. This morning during the warm-up we found a good solution in set-up, which gave me some confidence, and we were pretty ready for the rain. Unfortunately I was hit by another rider in the very first corner, this made me lose some time and positions and I had to recover. I felt some strange noises coming from the back of my machine but its overall performance was not bad, so I could recover some positions and be consistent with lap-times for nearly two-thirds of the race. Unfortunately the back tyre started to suffer a drop in performance and I had to give-up pushing hard. I had a pretty-good advantage on the rider behind and I decided that it was more important to finish the race and collect information. We have never raced in the rain so every single piece of data is crucial for us. It was not bad as a wet-race debut, we can work a lot on it; but overall I’m happy.”
Alvaro Bautista – “First of all I’d like to compliment whoever stopped the start. That was an excellent decision that prevented any problems. I’m disappointed not to have been able to race on a dry track as yesterday I had found a good feeling with the bike and I could have collected a lot of information. At the beginning I didn’t have a great feeling in the wet but I saw straight away that my times were quite good. It was difficult to gauge tyre performance, especially the rear, so I tried to set my pace and ride smoothly. That way I was also able to come back a bit, battling with various rivals, especially in the second part of the race that seemed to last a long time. In the end I even came close to ninth place, but this result is fine. I’d like to thank the entire team for the great job they did this weekend.”
Maverick Viñales – P11 – “Unfortunately the first corner affected my whole race. I saw another rider fall in front of me after having hit Aleix and I had to brake very hard not to crash into his bike and go wide in the turn, leaving me in last position. I tried to push hard to recover and I could make fast and consistent laps: Probably if I could have kept my starting position from the very beginning I could be very competitive and closer to the top-six. The important thing is that we had our first race in the wet and my feelings were very positive; for sure we have a lot of things we can improve, which is understandable.”
Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) was the leading Open Honda in 12th ahead of the Avintia Racing duo of Hector Barbera and Mike Di Meglio, while his teammate Eugene Laverty crossed the line in 17th.
Nicky Hayden – P12 – “Probably the toughest lap of the race today was the warm-up lap, when we were on slick tyres and the track was totally wet. It hasn’t been an easy weekend, we started from twentieth but the rain helped us finish off with a good result and some championship points. It was just a shame that I had a couple of moments on the last couple of laps and lost time, which allowed Viñales and Bautista past. It could have been a top ten finish today but we have to be satisfied with twelfth. We had a chance to understand the grip levels in the wet during the warm-up this morning and I knew it was important to stay on the inside in turn one off the start. The team also did a great job with the chassis and the electronics. I tried to get the tyres up to temperature quickly at the start and from the mid-point of the race my lap times were fast and consistent. In fact, my best lap was the tenth fastest of the race. It was important to take the Open victory today so let’s see if we can qualify better at Misano and fight for another one.”
LCR Honda pair Cal Crutchlow and Jack Miller both enjoyed excellent starts to the race and found themselves battling for the final podium spot. Unfortunately Miller would take out his British teammate at Vale on the 3rd lap, with both men forced to retire.
Jack Miller – DNF – “I’m happy with the weekend, but of course not happy with the result of the race. I want to say a big sorry to Cal for taking him out, but we were both pushing hard. I didn’t actually mean to overtake him, I was just trying to hold Espargaro off on the brakes and accidently went too deep and touched him. It was an accident, but all in all it was a good weekend as we found some settings with the bike we became more comfortable with and I’m looking forward to Misano. Misano is a good track for me, I like it a lot. It will be a new surface this year so I look forward to seeing what the grip level is like as last year was quite low, but it should be interesting.”
Cal Crutchlow – DNF – “Obviously I’m really disappointed, we could have done a great race today, I thought I had the pace to be with the winner. I felt really comfortable this morning in the rain and I felt really comfortable in the race, but these things happen. Jack is young, he was near to the front in a MotoGP race and made an ambitious move. He made a mistake, he apologised and I have accepted his apology. I’ve done it before and I’m sure I will do it again – this is racing, but obviously I was very disappointed. I came in and we changed the bike, but as soon as I went out of the pitlane I crashed immediately because it was a dry setting on that bike and there is a big, big difference. I was not really going to carry on too much as I was too far behind the leader at that point, but it was a good job by the LCR Honda team this weekend and I really appreciate all the fan support as they really helped us.”
Stefan Bradl (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) also crashed out of the race with 8 laps to go.
Stefan Bradl – DNF – “At the beginning of the race the tyres were very cold and I wasn’t able to maintain a good pace. Then finally after 4 or 5 laps I was able to start pushing harder. I got close to Alvaro and followed him for a few laps and then at a certain point going into turn 16 I suddenly lost grip at the front while braking and crashed. I’m very disappointed because we could have brought home a really good result, but throughout the weekend we didn’t really have a lot of time to work on the setup for this bike in these conditions, so I’m satisfied with the work done up to the crash. This time we were unlucky but we’re anxious to make up for it at Misano.”
Forward Racing riders Loris Baz and Claudio Corti in fact, after a race with difficult weather conditions, crossed the line in 16th and 18th place respectively.
Loris Baz – P16 – “After the great pole yesterday, it was not the race that I imagined. For the first time since the Qatar test I found myself lapping in wet conditions with a setting that I knew little and I have not had a chance get used to. At the beginning the feeling was good so I was able to stay in the group of the other Open but when the tires started to wear I had to slow down my pace and give way to my opponents.”
Eugene Laverty – P17 – “We had a little experience with this bike in the wet but my feeling on those occasions wasn’t too good. This was our first truly wet race and I probably rode as well as I ever have in these conditions but I lost too much time in the exit of the corners. I was braking hard and the first part of the corner was okay but we had no grip on the exit. I tried to follow a few riders and copy what they were doing but I had the same issue in every corner. Today showed that we need to find more grip in these conditions. At Misano we will have to work on improving the chassis set-up.”
Claudio Corti – P18 – “It was a difficult race, affected by the weather. I never had the opportunity to ride the Yamaha Forward on a wet track and it was not easy to race with a completely new setup. I was missing rear grip and this prevented me to push as much as I wanted. We will have to exploit the data gathered today and continue to work in this direction for the next races.”
Up next is round 13 in the MotoGP World Championship, the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini on 11th-13th September.
MotoGP Race Classification
Zarco takes fifth win of season in Moto2
Ajo Motorsport’s Johann Zarco made it 11 podiums in a row and extended his lead in the Moto2 World Championship standings after taking a commanding win during a wet race at the Octo British Grand Prix. The Frenchman crossed the line 3.360s ahead of Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins, with Tito Rabat on the EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex completing the podium.
Heavy rain during the morning’s Warm Up session saw all the riders line up on the grid with wet tyres but it had stopped by the time the lights went out, leading to a dramatic and tense race. Frenchman Zarco showed that he was the master in the wet as he managed to preserve his tyres when a dry racing line appeared while many others struggled.
Zarco, starting from 3rd on the grid, was involved in an excellent early battle with Rabat and Rins with the three riders swapping the lead numerous times. On the second lap Zarco and Rabat almost touched, with Zarco running wide and dropping back to fifth. It took him until lap seven to work his way back to the front and take the lead. Zarco immediately set about creating a gap at the front as the others seemed to suffer from greater tyre degradation. By lap thirteen the gap between Zarco and second placed Rabat had reached 8 seconds. There was a slight scare for the championship leader as Rins started to close him down in the final stages but he responded to take his 6th career GP victory by a comfortable margin.
Rookie Rins came out on top in an excellent scrap for second between himself and the two EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalexs of Rabat and Alex Marquez. Rins made a move with 5 laps to go to secure second for his own, leapfrogging Rabat in the championship standings in the process.
Rabat (+5.527s) had led into the first corner and looked like he could match the pace of Zarco in the early stages of the race, but after 8 laps you could visually see the rubber flying off his tyres. The reigning Moto2™ World Champion ran wide while fighting with his teammate Marquez for third on the penultimate lap, but managed to recover to take third and secure his fifth podium of the season.
Marquez (+6.489s) came from ninth on the grid to take his second fourth position in a row ahead of AGR Team’s Jonas Folger (+8.228s). Pole man and local hero, Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes, had a terrible start and was down in eighth by the end of the first lap. The British rider responded in front of his passionate home fans and fought back to cross the line in sixth.
Australian wet race specialist Anthony West (QMMF Racing) fought his way from 22nd on the grid to claim seventh. Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten), and Ricard Cardus (JP Moto Malaysia) completed the top ten.
There were crashes for wildcard Bradley Ray (FAB-Racing), Forward Racing duo Lorenzo Baldassari and Simone Corsi, plus Thitipong Warokorn (APH PTT The Pizza SAG).
Moto2 Race Classification
Courageous Kent victorious in Moto3
Leopard Racing’s Danny Kent delighted the 73,000 fans at the Octo British Grand Prix by claiming his 8th GP career victory in dominant fashion. The Moto3 race saw the worse weather of the day at Silverstone, but even this could not stop runaway Moto3 championship leader Kent. Starting from 3rd on the grid, the British rider took over the lead with 13 laps to go after Isaac Viñales crashed out and never looked back.
Once he had established a 10 second lead, he managed the gap perfectly to become the first British rider to win at Silverstone in the lightweight class despite a huge moment in the latter stages as the weather worsened.
With such a big lead, it became a test of concentration for Kent, but he passed with flying colours to cross the line 8.492s ahead of Jakub Kornfeil. He now has a 70-point lead over Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Enea Bastianini after the Italian crashed out of fifth on the penultimate lap.
Drive M7 SIC’s Kornfeil secured his first ever Moto3 podium as he battled through the pack from 13th on the grid to finish as the leading KTM, ahead of Niccolo Antonelli (+13.819s) on the Ongetta-Rivacold Honda who completed the podium. The Italian followed up his maiden win last time out in Brno with only his second career podium.
Almost 37 seconds further back was Estrella Galicia 0,0’s 16-year-old Fabio Quartararo in fourth. The French rider struggled with his helmet steaming up during the race, but managed to win an excellent battle with RW Racing’s Livio Loi (+51.755s) and Scotsman John McPhee (+53.726s) on the SAXOPRINT RTG Honda. Loi and McPhee once again demonstrated their prowess in the wet after finishing on the top two steps of the podium at Indianapolis.
Mapfre Team Mahindra’s Juanfran Guevara pulled off his career best result as he finished in seventh. Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Husqvarna Factory Laglisse) scored points for the first time in his career in only his third race, finishing in eighth.
Efren Vazquez (Leopard Racing) and Tatsuki Suzuki (CIP) completed the top ten while British wildcards Luke Hedger (FPW Racing) and Taz Taylor (RS Racing) finished in 18th and 19th respectively.
Australia’s Remy Gardner finished 17th after recovering from an early slip off in the testing conditions – “Today I had a very good opportunity to get a good result but I crashed in the third lap because water was making difficult to see the track in the middle of the group. Track was very slippery and race was like a lottery. After my 12th place in a wet warm-up I had good expectations for the race. After the crash, my bike was not in a perfect condition but I managed to finish the race just 2 places behind the points”.
There were falls for Francesco Bagnaia, Andrea Locatelli, Maria Herrera, Brad Binder. A total of 16 riders fell, including pole man Jorge Navarro who crashed out of the race on the very first lap whilst in the lead.
Moto3 Race Classification
