MotoGP

Quartararo wins British GP, Aprilia ends MotoGP podium wait

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
4 min read

Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo strengthened his hold on the title race by dominating the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, as Aprilia bagged its first podium of the MotoGP era.

Championship leader Quartararo – who gambled on a soft front tyre – was down to fourth early on, but methodically worked his way to the front of the pack and controlled the proceedings to bank his fifth win of the campaign.

He was joined on the podium by Silverstone’s previous MotoGP winner Alex Rins (Suzuki) and an emotional Aleix Espargaro, who survived a last-lap duel with Jack Miller to claim a long-awaited podium for Aprilia.

It was Aprilia’s first premier-class podium since Jeremy McWilliams finished third in the 500cc race at this same track in 2000, and Espargaro’s first MotoGP podium since he took second place on the Forward Yamaha in the 2014 Aragon race.

After Pol Espargaro delivered the first Honda pole of the season on Saturday, the Espargaro brothers ran 1-2 in the opening laps, with Aleix having overtaken Quartararo on the straight and then picking off Francesco Bagnaia – who’d had a bad start from the front row but reclaimed second using Ducati’s grunt on the Hangar straight – at Brooklands.

As the Aprilia rider then lunged down the inside of his brother but couldn’t complete the move, Quartararo dealt with Bagnaia for third and set out after the sibling duo, getting past the elder Espargaro just a couple of laps later at The Loop.

The following lap, he eased past the younger Espargaro down the inside of Farm, beginning the breakaway that his rivals would have feared.

By the time the Espargaro brothers traded position, Aleix having snuck by Pol, Quartararo was already a second up the road, and his lead gradually grew from there, reaching nearly triple what it was by the halfway point.

The Espargaro pairing had been broken up by the charging Rins by that point, but the brothers would be reunited when Aleix Espargaro faltered in his resistance, running wide and opening the door to the Suzuki.

Yet Rins too was unable to make any meaningful inroads on Quartararo, only getting back within thee seconds on the final lap, when Quartararo eased off.

Ducati works rider Miller, who rode a methodical race, looked to deliver heartbreak to Aprilia by briefly getting into third place on the last tour, only for Espargaro to respond and bring the RS-GP home by a tenth.

Pol Espargaro couldn’t quite keep pace with the pair but settled for a fifth place in what was comfortably his best race as a Honda rider so far.

Though Joan Mir ran with team-mate Rins early on, he had nowhere near the same pace and particularly struggled towards the end, falling into the clutches of the chasing pack and getting swallowed up by the two KTMs of Brad Binder and Tech3 outcast Iker Lecuona, and LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez. He ended up ninth.

Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco, who was level with Mir as Quartararo’s closest rival coming into the race, was a low-key 11th, losing out to Danilo Petrucci (Tech3 KTM).

Bagnaia had a dreadful race after leading early on, never looking comfortable after an early error allowed the two Suzukis through. He eventually slumped to 14th. His mentor Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha) had a similar race, running sixth early on but ending up a disappointing 18th, ahead of only his newcomer team-mate Jake Dixon.

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez suffered his sixth separate crash in eight races, having clashed with Jorge Martin thanks to an optimistic overtaking attempt through the Vale chicane. The pair were the only retirements in the race.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 20 16 40m20.579s 2m0.098s 0 25
2 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 20 0 +2.663s 2m0.502s 0 20
3 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 20 0 +4.105s 2m0.579s 0 16
4 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 20 0 +4.254s 2m0.442s 0 13
5 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 20 4 +8.462s 2m0.6s 0 11
6 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 20 0 +12.189s 2m0.776s 0 10
7 Iker Lecuona Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 20 0 +13.56s 2m0.778s 0 9
8 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 20 0 +14.044s 2m0.76s 0 8
9 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 20 0 +16.226s 2m0.647s 0 7
10 Danilo Petrucci Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 20 0 +16.287s 2m0.97s 0 6
11 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 20 0 +16.339s 2m0.708s 0 5
12 Enea Bastianini Avintia Esponsorama Racing Ducati 20 0 +17.696s 2m01.08s 0 4
13 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 20 0 +18.285s 2m0.703s 0 3
14 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 20 0 +20.913s 2m0.84s 0 2
15 Luca Marini SKY VR46 Avintia Team Ducati 20 0 +21.018s 2m01.042s 0 1
16 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 20 0 +22.022s 2m01.237s 0 0
17 Cal Crutchlow Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 20 0 +23.232s 2m01.226s 0 0
18 Valentino Rossi Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 20 0 +29.758s 2m0.949s 0 0
19 Jake Dixon Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 20 0 +50.845s 2m02.752s 0 0
Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 1 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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