Crutchlow Second in Thriller, Marquez Retains Title Lead

[totalmotorcycle]

@Crutchlow Second in Thriller, @Marquez Retains Title Lead


Local hero Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda RC213V) followed up his maiden MotoGP win at last month’s Czech Grand Prix with a breath-taking ride to second place in this afternoon’s thrilling British Grand Prix.


Cal CrutchlowzoomCal Crutchlow Cal CrutchlowzoomCal Crutchlow
The Briton was involved in a heart-in-the-mouth battle with World Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), with Marquez coming home a close fourth to go into next weekend’s San Marino holding a 50-point lead in the 2016 MotoGP World Championship.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) also rode a superb race, running with the group chasing second place, eventually crossing the line in sixth, just three tenths of a second behind Marquez. The race was won by first-time MotoGP winner Maverick Vinales (Suzuki).

Crutchlow continued his brilliant run of recent form: second in July’s damp German GP, victory in last month’s wet Czech GP and pole position in yesterday’s soaking qualifying session. Today the former World Supersport champion – born in nearby Coventry – proved he could ride with the best in dry conditions, battling back and forth with Rossi and Marquez for much of the race and never giving an inch.

Vinales led from the first lap to the last, allowing the 75,000 fans to focus on the enthralling contest for second that raged throughout the race, restarted and reduced to 19 laps after a high-speed, first-lap crash involving Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) and Loris Baz (Ducati), who both survived relatively unscathed.

As the restarted race went on, Marquez, Rossi and Crutchlow all took their turns in second place, passing and repassing as they struggled for supremacy through Silverstone’s challenging high-speed curves. There were moments aplenty as each of the trio overstepped the mark, gathered themselves up and went back to business, but Marquez knew he had made a mistake by choosing the softer-option Michelin front, which lost him some front-end stability.

Marquez lost his chance of a podium on the penultimate lap as he duelled with Crutchlow towards the end of the 322km/h (200mph) Hangar Straight. The pair appeared to touch and Marquez had to take to the asphalt run-off area, which dropped him to fifth behind his team-mate, whom he repassed on the final lap. He finished just over a second behind third-placed Rossi, which reduced his title advantage over the Italian from 53 points to 50. Their contest will resume at Misano next weekend.

MotoGP’s sole rookie Tito Rabat (EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) scored a point in 15th position, his ninth time in the points in his first 12 MotoGP races.

Jack Miller (EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda RC213V) finished just outside the points. Battered and bruised from injuries sustained in last month’s Austrian GP and hurting from another tumble yesterday, the young Australian finished 16th.

Thomas Luthi (Garage Plus Interwetten Kalex) won a miraculous Moto2 victory this afternoon, just two weeks after being ruled out of the Czech Grand Prix due to concussion sustained in a high-speed qualifying crash. The Swiss rider – who won the opening race of the 2016 Honda-powered Moto2 series in Qatar – qualified tenth yesterday but found some superb speed during the race. He moved swiftly through the pack to grab the lead on lap eight of 18 and then resist huge pressure from his pursuers.

Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS Kalex) equalled his best finish with a brilliant ride to second place, eight tenths behind Luthi, and just ahead of Assen winner Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex) and Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Raceline Malaysia Kalex) who spent the final few laps disputing the last podium positions.

The trio looked out of the hunt for top-three finishes until championship leader Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport Kalex) took out early leader Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Kalex) as the pair disputed second place with four laps to go. Zarco cut an over-optimistic move on the home favorite and pole-sitter as they rode into the Brooklands left-hander, knocking Lowes down and taking to the run-off himself. He returned to the track still in the points but was given a ten-second penalty which dropped him to 22nd.

The incident was a huge boost for Zarco’s only serious championship rival Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex) who qualified 19th, just over a week since he broke a collarbone, but fought his way through to seventh at the flag, behind Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Team Kalex) and Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex). With six races to go, Zarco’s lead over Rins has been reduced to just ten points.

The last three men in the top ten of the race in which all riders use identically prepared CBR600 engines supplied by the organizers were Simone Corsi (Speed Up Speed Up), Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) and Axel Pons (AGR Team Kalex).

Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW) was the unlucky victim of a particularly frantic Moto3 race, the young Spaniard brought down by another rider while he was fully in contention for his first victory since June’s Catalan GP. Navarro had started from 18th on the grid, after sliding off in yesterday’s wet qualifying and was knocked down at turn nine with only two laps to go.

Navarro’s demise left amazing rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW) the top Honda rider, in the midst of a leading group that sometimes included more than a dozen riders. At the checkered flag the 17-year-old from Rome was sixth, just 0.88s seconds behind winner and World Championship leader Brad Binder (KTM), four hundredths ahead of seventh-placed Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold Honda NSF250RW) and a further eight hundredths in front of seventh-finisher Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW), who briefly led the early stages.

Impressive rookie Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW) was eighth. The top eight finishers were covered by 1.4 seconds. Jules Danilo (Ongetta-Rivacold Honda NSF250RW) was 21st with four laps to go and finished 13th.

The MotoGP paddock packs up in a hurry this evening for one of its most grueling trips to Misano, for next weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix on Italy’s Adriatic coast.


Marc MarquezzoomMarc Marquez Marc Marquez, Dani PedrosazoomMarc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa

Honda MotoGP Rider Quotes
Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda: 2nd“It was great to be part of that battle, so I’d like to say a big thanks to my team and to Honda who work so hard for me. We had a bad start to the year but all the hard work is paying off now. In the battle I gave as good as got – I had a great battle with Marc and Valentino; and my congratulations to Maverick for the win. To stand on the podium at my home race is so special. I’ve no real idea why I’m going well now! I just feel good on the bike and I can push to my limit now, more than I could at the start of the year. I feel in great shape at the moment; so hopefully Misano will be another good race, although I think it could be more difficult for us.”Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 4th“Today was one of those difficult Sundays because there were many ways of approaching the race, with many options for both the front and rear tires. Perhaps we got it wrong with the front, because we chose the soft tire, but that was what we thought was best before the race. I realized the mistake once the race was underway, and from there I decided to make the most of the situation. It’s a pity that I went wide under braking when fighting for second place, but in the end we rectified the situation quite well. We finished fourth and only lost three points from our overall advantage, which is what matters to us.”Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 5th“Overall it was a challenging weekend because of the track conditions. It’s been cold all weekend and sometimes raining, and we’ve never had any sun. It was hard to get a good feel for the tires because there was no rubber laid down on the asphalt. I chose the soft-soft combination and I knew that I would have some issues in the final laps, but all in all I think it was the best choice at the moment. The good news is we’ve taken a step forward in terms of results and have regained a little more confidence, especially entering the corners. There are still some things that we need to improve, but we had a decent race and set some more reasonable lap times. We’ll try to take the positives from here and work on the rest for the next race.”Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS: 15th“This weekend has been one of the most difficult of my career. I have found it very difficult to go fast at this fast and technical track but as always I will look to take the positives out of it and I finished the last three races in the points. I felt we have made some progress when it was not easy to do so with all the changeable weather and now I go to Misano looking forward to being more competitive. It is one of my favorite tracks and my goal will be to finish inside the points again.”Jack Miller, EG 0,0 Marc VDS: 16th“Today’s race was a difficult one for me and the biggest issue I had was with the rear tire. I had a really good start in both races and I felt really comfortable in the opening laps. But after about five laps I started to have some issues with grip on the right side of the rear tire. I was just out there doing laps for the remainder of the race and making sure I didn’t take any risks to avoid crashing. It was impossible for me to fight with anybody and I was happy to get in 19 laps on the bike after a difficult time with injuries. But I am disappointed because I’m sure I could have picked up some important points today.”
Honda Moto2 Rider Quotes
Thomas Luthi, Garage Plus Interwetten: 1st“This is a difficult feeling to describe! It wasn’t easy to come back from the accident at Brno. I missed the race and a MotoGP test with KTM, so that hurt my heart a lot. But I focused on Silverstone and towards the end of last week I thought, okay, I can race, but I couldn’t train the way I wanted to, so I came here a bit nervous. I think it was good for me that conditions were so changeable, so no one was able to do a lot of laps on their race tires, so in the end it was a bit of a gamble for everyone. After the start I got into a good rhythm and found I could gain on the other guys, so I started moving forward. I got into the front, made a bit of a gap, then I saw the accident between Sam and Johann on a big screen, so after that I just worked to manage the gap.”Franco Morbidelli, Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS: 2nd“I repeated my best result in second, so I am happy. But I am happier that we are in a good trend in the dry, with good pace whenever we have a dry track, so I can fight for the podium. It’s a good result before my home race in Misano, so I’m looking forward to getting there!”Takaaki Nakagami, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia: 3rd“My thanks to my team – after the summer break I had two not-so-good races, but finally we were able to be fast again. It has been difficult to understand the weather here, with wet qualifying, damp warm-up and then a dry race! I had a good battle with Franco but I was not able to overtake him. My congratulations to him and to Thomas.”
Honda Moto3 Rider Quotes
Fabio Di Giannantonio, Gresini Racing Moto3: 6th“I’m very happy, it was a fantastic race and it’s a great feeling to finish sixth starting from the 25th position! At the beginning of the race I immediately recovered several positions thanks to a perfect start, then I was able to take the lead of the second group in order to try to close the gap to the leaders. Since I reached the leading group, we had an ardent battle till the end, so much that I have my leathers marked in several areas! In the end I did my best to try to get on the podium, but the fight was very close and when Manzi made Navarro crash in front of me, the first three were able to open a little gap. At that point I still didn’t lose heart and I continued to push hard, but in the end the podium was not possible. However, that’s okay, now we look forward to Misano!”Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing Moto3: 8th“We knew it would have been a difficult race because during weekend I’ve been struggling a bit in windy conditions, but today we were competitive and so I’m a little disappointed and angry because some riders made strong maneuvers during the race, therefore it was not easy to be able to stay in the top positions. In the final laps, then, I had some issues at Turn 7, where I couldn’t brake hard and to keep the line; I think that this problem actually prevented us from fighting for the podium.”Aron Canet, Estrella Galicia 0,0: 9th“After the bad luck that we’ve had with crashes and not scoring any points, we’ve have learned from this difficult patch and I think today we had a good race at Silverstone. At first I didn’t have a good feeling with the bike and I felt like I did in the race in Austria, so I put into practice what I learned there. Some riders got past me so I analyzed things and then overtook them back within a lap. I started to push very hard with the idea of reaching the frontrunners because I was riding at the same pace as them. On the last lap, I strengthened my pace and I managed to finish ninth. I think in today's race the good feelings are back and I feel that we are again competitive.”
Thomas LuthizoomThomas Luthi

MotoGP World Championship Grand Prix 2016
Round 12: Great Britain Race
MotoGP Class


Rank

Rider (Team)

1 Maverick VIÑALES (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR)
2 Cal CRUTCHLOW (LCR Honda)
3 Valentino ROSSI (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)
4 Marc MARQUEZ (Repsol Honda Team)
5 Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team)
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Ducati Team)
7 Aleix ESPARGARO (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR)
8 Jorge LORENZO (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP)
9 Danilo PETRUCCI (OCTO Pramac Yakhnich)
10 Alvaro BAUTISTA (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini)
11 Yonny HERNANDEZ (Aspar Team MotoGP)
12 Eugene LAVERTY (Aspar Team MotoGP)
13 Alex LOWES (Monster Yamaha Tech 3)
14 Hector BARBERA (Avintia Racing)
15 Tito RABAT (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS)

Moto2 Class


Rank

Rider (Team)

1 Thomas LUTHI (Garage Plus Interwetten)
2 Franco MORBIDELLI (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS)
3 Takaaki NAKAGAMI (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia)
4 Hafizh SYAHRIN (Petronas Raceline Malaysia)
5 Jonas FOLGER (Dynavolt Intact GP)
6 Lorenzo BALDASSARRI (Forward Team)
7 Alex RINS (Paginas Amarillas HP 40)
8 Simone CORSI (Speed Up Racing)
9 Mattia PASINI (Italtrans Racing Team)
10 Axel PONS (AGR Team)
11 Marcel SCHROTTER (AGR Team)
12 Sandro CORTESE (Dynavolt Intact GP)
13 Xavi VIERGE (Tech 3 Racing)
14 Julian SIMON (QMMF Racing Team)
15 Danny KENT (Leopard Racing)

Moto3 Class


Rank

Rider (Team)

1 Brad BINDER (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
2 Francesco BAGNAIA (ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3)
3 Bo BENDSNEYDER (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
4 Stefano MANZI(Mahindra Racing)
5 Nicolo BULEGA (SKY Racing Team VR46)
6 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO (Gresini Racing Moto3)
7 Niccolò ANTONELLI (Ongetta-Rivacold)
8 Enea BASTIANINI (Gresini Racing Moto3)
9 Aron CANET (Estrella Galicia 0,0)
10 Joan MIR (Leopard Racing)
11 Jorge MARTIN (ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3)
12 Gabriel RODRIGO (RBA Racing Team)
13 Philipp OETTL (Schedl GP Racing)
14 Jules DANILO (Ongetta-Rivacold)
15 Andrea LOCATELLI (Leopard Racing)