By Dan Moakes
September 16 2013

Is 20-year-old Marc Márquez on course to take the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship crown as a rookie, or can his experienced rivals close down his lead in the points table? Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo both faced that ongoing task at round twelve in Great Britain.

The British Grand Prix takes place at the fully modernised Silverstone circuit, where Yamaha-mounted Lorenzo has won twice before, with Márquez and Stefan Bradl the only other current MotoGP riders with a GP win here. In qualifying, these three were all on the pace, joined by Cal Crutchlow, a Silverstone winner in World Superbike racing. The Englishman would start third on his Tech 3 Yamaha, despite crashes during practice that had left him with arm injuries. Bradl was fourth for LCR Honda, with Lorenzo second and Márquez leading the way with pole on the Repsol Honda.

Pedrosa was back in fifth on the second of the factory Honda bikes, ahead of Valentino Rossi on the second of the Yamahas. Andrea Dovizioso led the Ducati charge in seventh, from Álvaro Bautistá (Gresini Honda), Nicky Hayden (Ducati) and Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Yamaha). Eleventh place saw the first CRT bike, a best-yet for Colin Edwards on his FTR-Kawasaki for Forward Racing. Aleix Espargaró was a place behind, coping with a broken finger sustained in a crash, then it was his Aspar ART team-mate Randy de Puniet, from Héctor Barberá (Avintia).

The Pramac Ducati riders, Michele Pirro and Andrea Iannone, were well back in P15 and P16 respectively, in front of Bird Motorsport rider Yonny Hernández (another man to have crashed); and then Danilo Petrucci (IodaRacing), Michael Laverty (Bird Motorsport), Claudio Corti (Forward Racing), Hiroshi Aoyama (Avintia Blusens), Lukáš Pešek (IodaRacing) and Bryan Staring (Gresini), with Karel Abraham absent.

In cool conditions on the morning of race day, there was a fairly serious warm-up crash for Márquez at the Vale corner which saw the Spaniard dislocate his shoulder. Nevertheless, he was able to take the start in somewhat breezy conditions, with racing getting underway from the original start-finish line, between the Woodcote and Copse corners, instead of the grid alongside the modern pit complex.

Lorenzo was first away, ahead of Márquez, who would look at making a move at Stowe, where they brake for a right-hander at the end of the main Hangar Straight. Rossi was third, from Bradl, Crutchlow, Pedrosa, Smith, Bautistá, Dovizioso, Hayden and Iannone. Using softer compound rear Bridgestone tyres, with everyone else on medium, Bradl was quick to move past Rossi for third, but already the first two were getting away. Pedrosa had a bit to do to challenge his compatriots, and he started with a pass on Crutchlow, who would then have to tussle with the attacking Bautistá, through the corners at Village and The Loop, ending up with the Honda ahead through Brooklands.

Lorenzo was the fastest man initially, tailed by Márquez, with Pedrosa passing Rossi to sit fourth, behind Bradl. When the German rider ran a bit wide through the Copse right-hander, Dani had his chance to pass on the inside line, then proceeded to pull away in pursuit of his two rivals at the front. Márquez had already improved on Lorenzo’s fastest lap, but now it was Pedrosa’s turn to go even faster as he attacked the one-second gap ahead of him, which he was able to reduce. Meanwhile, Bautistá was up to fifth, behind Bradl and ahead of Rossi, with Crutchlow apparently unable to stay with this trio.

Half-distance saw the leading three riders running in close order, and at times Márquez looked threatening behind Lorenzo, or with Pedrosa posing a similar threat in third - at places like Stowe and Brooklands, a left-hander after the back straight at Wellington. Bautistá had taken over fourth from Bradl and seemed to be pulling away, with Rossi then engaging the German with back-and-forth moves, firstly at Vale and Club corners, secondly at Abbey and Farm corners. Both times saw Stefan regain the position, but Valentino was not held back for too long, and then he chased after Álvaro.

The final laps saw Lorenzo still leading Márquez, and with Pedrosa at times just slightly out of reach of his team-mate. It was towards the end of lap 18, in the 20-lap race, that Marc found a way past, braking on the inside entering Brooklands. The back end of the circuit, at the Vale left-hander, saw Jorge’s reply, with another inside pass. It came down to the final section on the last lap, with Lorenzo riding defensively, braking late for Brooklands and just going a bit wide. Márquez was able to get inside his rival and edge ahead for the right-looping Luffield. However, the Honda man left a small enough gap for Jorge to squeeze back through and just hold on through the Woodcote right-hander.

Despite his injury, Márquez was only just defeated by Lorenzo, but his run of victories was ended. And once again it was an all-Spanish rostrum, with Pedrosa still close behind at the flag, citing tyre problems that were surely due to his recovery from a disappointing start. Rossi took fourth after his second attempt finally relegated Bautistá to fifth; with Bradl lonely in sixth and similarly Crutchlow in seventh. Smith had fallen off the pace and was eventually closed down by the works Ducati pair, who both went through. However, a front end fall by Dovizioso gave eighth to Hayden, with Smith ninth home.

Espargaró was, as usual, the first of the CRT men to greet the chequered flag, fighting back into tenth position ahead of full MotoGP prototype racer machinery - the customer Ducatis of Iannone and Pirro. The final points scorers were Barberá, Edwards and Petrucci and, with Pešek having crashed out early on, that left six other finishers: de Puniet, Corti, Aoyama, Laverty, Hernández and Staring.

Jorge Lorenzo had won three of the first six races in 2013, but had then suffered injurious crashes at consecutive meetings and not done better than third place subsequently. This time, with Marc Márquez the one a bit under par, the world champion showed his mettle once again, gaining back some ground even as Marc extended his lead over Dani Pedrosa. None of the three Spaniards has had an injury-free season, but still they are the men to beat - and no doubt that will continue next time.

Standings after twelve races: Márquez 233; Pedrosa 203; Lorenzo 194; Rossi 156; Crutchlow 136; Bradl 113; Bautistá 103; Dovizioso 96; Hayden 88; Espargaró 68 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 271; Yamaha 245; Ducati 107; ART 70; FTR-Kawasaki 42; Ioda Suter-BMW 21; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.