Rossi beats the rain and re-takes championship lead

Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi enthralled fans with a fearless ride in the rain to claim his first ever victory at Silverstone. His new victory has opened up a 12-point lead in the MotoGP™ World Championship standings over his teammate Jorge Lorenzo. It was originally declared a dry race, but rain on the grid prompted riders to return to the pits on their warm-up lap to swap for wets.

Rossi had a good start before moving his way up from 4th on the grid to take the lead on just the second lap. Rossi managed to pass his teammate and main title rival Lorenzo at Village corner, much to the delight of the 73,000 fans at the legendary Silverstone Circuit. He then tried to break away at the front, with only Marc Marquez on the Repsol Honda able to stay with him. Lap after lap Rossi and Marquez pulled away at the front, opening up a gap of 7 seconds to the 3rd placed Petrucci by just the ninth lap. The 36-year-old Italian was setting a blistering pace in the dreadful conditions, and it proved too much for even Marquez. The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion crashed out on lap 13 at Copse Corner to effectively end any chance he had of defending his title. The Spaniard now trails Rossi by 77 points in the standings, with just 6 races remaining.

Danilo Petrucci of Ducati and Andrea Dovizioso soon caught up towards the end of the race. Petrucci had reduced the gap to just 1.6s with two laps remaining, but Rossi got a signal from his pit board and upped the pace once more. The ‘Doctor’ went on to take the race win by 3.010s.

Up next is round 13 in the MotoGP™ World Championship, the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini on 11th-13th September.