Maverick Viñales leads Suzuki into delirium in Silverstone, the land of Barry Sheene

2023 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-09-01 00:14

The Spanish Maverick Viñales He has won the MotoGP Grand Prix of Great Britain, ending Suzuki's drought that lasted almost a decade on the weekend in which precisely the first great myth of the Hamamatsu brand was honored: the British Barry Sheene, winner of two titles for the brand.

Viñales dominated the race from start to finish and entered the finish line alone, leaving the emotion in the fight for second position, which was for Cal crutchlow and, above all, by the third, where Valentino rossi took the podium after a majestic battle with Marc Márquez, who was fourth and maintains a 50-point lead overall.

Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez put the salt

There was no lack of emotion or controversy in the previous races, with Brad Binder taking a step to the title in Moto3 and Johann Zarco returning to his old ways in Moto2 in a race won by Thomas Luthi. The South African and Swiss anthems had already sounded. Would Spanish or Italian sound in MotoGP? Or would the British sound again like in Brno? Cal Crutchlow was ready to triumph at home from pole.

The traffic light went out and, in just half a minute, the heart of the paddock shrunk. Two motorcycles flying, two pilots entering the asphalt and the others avoiding them by centimeters. It was just a scare, but there were minutes of tension: first seeing Pol Espargaro retired on a stretcher and, finally the tranquility when seeing Loris baz waving to the public as they put him into the ambulance.

Maverick Viñales took command of the test on the first lap and left alone for the history books of Suzuki and motorcycling.

With fear in his body, he resumed the race and, as he had done before the red flag, Maverick Viñales assumed command and did not wait for anyone. Behind, began a fight for second position between a range of drivers that would expand with the passage of laps.

First they began to discuss the position Cal Crutchlow, Marc Márquez and Valentino Rossi, who seemed determined to lead the pursuit of Maverick. But he could not reduce the distance, and neither was he able to outrun his pursuers, a group they clung to. Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone. With the latter, the show was assured.

Iannone began to gain positions until he placed second with an overtaking to the limit on Rossi, who was not about to deliver the key of the chase to his compatriot and replied the last one, but Crutchlow appeared and began to battle with Iannone, leaving to Rossi and Márquez fighting for fourth position.

A fight that happened to be the one on the podium when Iannone went to the ground. Vale and Marc began a series of majestic overtaking, at the limit but not exceeding it. Aggressive but clean, honoring the sport of two wheels as they both know how to do it when they want to. With no other law than the next curve, calculators gave way to the search for impossible gaps.

Cal Crutchlow is still sweet and has once again shown that he is one of the fiercest rivals in hand-to-hand, which earned him to finish second.

Even Marc slipped in and had to skip the chicane, but he was adept at raising his hand and making it clear that he wasn't buying time with the maneuver. He re-entered the track just behind Rossi to continue the fight where they left off. He switched back to the Italian and seemed to have something in store, as he managed to put a few tenths into it and get closer to Crutchlow.

Heads-up for second place was served and, if anyone expected to see a magnanimous Cal for being fighting against the world leader with whom he shares the mark, they were wrong. Because Cal is a lot of Cal, and before joining Honda he was already British. What does that mean? That at Silverstone they do not understand corporatism, they only know that a second is worth more than a third.

This is how Cal saw it and this is how Marc understood it, who did not shrink at the stake. They battled cleanly until a light touch on their knees in a hurry forced Marquez to go long, and this time he could not amend it without punishment. When he returned to the track he was behind Pedrosa and, although he surpassed him, Rossi was already far away. There was only one lap left and the podium was gone.

Several hundred meters ahead, Maverick Viñales completed a race for history: for yours and for Suzuki, who was winning again nine years after Chris Vermeulen's 2007 Le Mans triumph. And he was doing it in the territory of Barry Sheene, the man who led Suzuki to his first two world titles. A poetic setting in which to achieve the desired triumph.

A tireless Valentino Rossi completed the box after putting up a great overtaking display with Marc Márquez, who finished fourth.

Crutchlow came in second with Rossi completing the podium, and Márquez saving fourth position ahead of Pedrosa. Sixth was Andrea Dovizioso, with Aleix Espargaró seventh ahead of a blurred Jorge Lorenzo. The top ten were completed by Danilo Petrucci and Álvaro Bautista, with Héctor Barberá 14th and Tito Rabat 15th.

In the general, Márquez sees his distance with Rossi reduced to 50 points, but instead extends the advantage over Lorenzo to 64 points. Maverick Viñales, who also becomes the first rider to achieve victories in the three categories of current motorcycling (MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3) surpasses Dani Pedrosa and is fourth in the general classification.