We were expecting a thrilling battle at Silverstone, and the race didn't disappoint. The only mistake you'd have made was to assume who'd have done the battling.
At the start, Valentino Rossi took off like a scalded cat, and maintained a gap of roughly 0.7 seconds to a group all vying for second place. This group included Vinales, Marquez, Dovizioso and Crutchlow. Of the five, four riders had chosen the hard front and rear tyre options for the sunny race - only Maverick had gambled with a medium front and a soft rear. Things didn't really work out for him, though - the break he wanted to make never really materialised. Instead, he got reeled in and passed by both Dovizioso and Marquez, whose engine lunched itself a third of the way through the race. Meanwhile, Rossi kept his distance from the group, but in the closing stages the Yamaha's tyre life issues reared their head again. There was nothing he could do to prevent first Dovizioso then Vinales from passing him. However, Rossi was happy with the result - his aim was to get on the podium, he said, and he achieved it. Cal Crutchlow, on the other hand, was very disappointed with fourth place (and first among the independent riders). He had the pace to win, but the tyres were once more the limiting factor for him as well.
Jorge Lorenzo had one of the better races of his Ducati career - his laptimes were identical to the leading group for much of the race, but a poor start had him a couple of seconds behind them and unable to make up ground by middle distance. Johann Zarco had another good race, bringing it home in sixth behind Lorenzo. Scott Redding had one of the best races of the year, finishing in the top ten. Alex Rins, the rookie on the Suzuki, also made it into the top ten - hopefully a sign of things to come for the youngster.
The full result of the British MotoGP round is below:
1. Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati
2. Maverick Vinales, Movistar Yamaha (+0.114)
3. Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha (+0.749)
4. Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda (+1.679)
5. Jorge Lorenzo, Ducati (+3.508)
6. Johann Zarco, Tech3 Yamaha (+7.001)
7. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda (+10.944)
8. Scott Redding, Pramac Ducati (+13.627)
9. Alex Rins, Suzuki (+15.661)
10. Alvaro Bautista, Aspar Ducati (+25.279)
11. Pol Espargaro, KTM (+30.336)
12. Tito Rabat, Marc VDS Honda (+31.609)
13. Karel Abraham, Aspar Ducati (+31.945)
14. Hector Barbera, Avintia Ducati (+33.567)
15. Loris Baz, Avintia Ducati (+33.901)
16. Jack Miller, Marc VDS Honda (+43.012)
17. Bradley Smith, KTM (+48.683)
List of DNFs
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia (2 laps)
Danilo Petrucci, Pramac Ducati (3 laps)
Andrea Iannone, Suzuki (3 laps)
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda (7 laps)
Sam Lowes, Aprilia (15 laps)
