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Rossi Wins at Soaked Silverstone, Ducati Again on the Podium

It was a dramatic Sunday at Silverstone, as weather played havoc with the premier class event. First declared a dry race, the British GP soon turned to chaos even before the start.
Rossi wins at Silverstone, 2015 18 photos
Photo: motogp.com
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Drizzle started during the sighting laps, while the entire grid was shod with dry slicks. As the tracks grew damp, all the riders decided to pass through pit lane and swap to the bikes set up for wet conditions and make the final setup tweaks.

As rain was clearly not going to go, the race was declared wet, and all the riders should normally have to start from the pit lane. However, the Race Direction understood that this was a major hazard, with 25 bikes having to squeeze through the narrow pit lane exit of the Silverstone circuit. A very sensible decision was to delay the start and have the bikes lined up on the grid, as if in normal conditions.

The race was quite frantic on the wet British tarmac, as the start saw Lorenzo shooting ahead of Marquez, who started from pole. However, his lead was a short one as Rossi, starting from the 4th spot on the grid charged ahead past Marquez and did not hesitate to overtake his Yamaha teammate on the first time he ran slightly wide.

Silverstone was a real nightmare for Lorenzo as he rode rather cautiously in the wet and was also affected by poor vision from his foggy helmet visor. Lorenzo was also bumped into by Pol Espargaro but managed to stay upright, and in the end he had to make way for Pramac Ducati's Danilo Petrucci.

Marquez can't keep up with Rossi, crashes out of the race

Rossi's incredible pace in wet conditions was too much even for Marc Marquez. The defending world champion crashed 8 laps before the end of the race, thwarting all but his extreme mathematical chances for a title this year.

Marquez has joined the ranks of those who did not reach the finish line, Pol Espargaro, Stefan Bradl, Cal Crutchlow, who was taken down by Jack Miller, and Yonny Hernandez.

This left Petrucci and Dovizioso battling hard for the second position. Pramac's rider has done a wonderful race and even got as close as 1.5 seconds to Rossi. After learning that Marquez was no longer chasing him, the Doctor eased up a bit, as he thought it was impossible for a Pramac bike to pose real threats and cover a 7-second gap. Rossi got a reality check as Petrucci recovered most of this gap and had the Yamaha in the sights.

As the race drew closer to the end, Rossi stepped up his pace a bit and Petrucci understood he should not take any unnecessary risks. In the end, the all-Italian podium saw Rossi, Petrucci and Dovizioso, with Lorenzo fourth, followed by Pedrosa and a very fast and determined Scott Redding sixth.

Another Brit was seventh, Bradley Smith, with Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Iannone and Alvaro Bautista rounding up the top ten and bringing solid points for Aprilia, while Nicky Hayden was the best Open class rider.

This is the first time in his MotoGP career when Petrucci steps on the podium and a glorious boost for Ducati ahead of the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini at Misano, in San Marino on September the 13th.

The backyard race of Valentino Rossi, the Misano circuit is also like a home round for Ducati, and we can expect that both the factory and satellite teams try to bring even more glory to Borgo Panigale.

With his Silverstone win, Rossi re-takes leadership in the championship six races until the end. He now has 236 points, while his teammate has 224. With 159 point, Marquez can kiss hopes for the title goodbye, while defending his position from Andrea Iannone, who is only 9 points down from him. More mistakes and crashes could be a major threat for the young Spaniard and his season podium position is anything but safe yet.
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