Marquez back on the Top Step

Moto GP 2014

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www.motorcycle-usa.com  By Byron Wilson

MotoGP Silverstone Results 2014

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez returned to the top-step at Silverstone, taking his 11th MotoGP win of 2014. Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo crossed the line in second followed by teammate Valentino Rossi in third.

Lorenzo and Marquez were side-by-side as they dipped into the first turn of the 20-lap contest, with the Mallorcan gaining the advantage before the end of the opening rotation. NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Aleix Espargaro slotted into third followed by Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, Rossi and Marquez’s teammate, Dani Pedrosa. Espargaro quickly lost position to Dovi and then Rossi made the move on the Forward Racing pilot as well. Pedrosa remained stuck in sixth through a handful of turns, unable to quickly dispatch Espargaro, and had a small gap to close when he finally made the move to fifth in order to battle for a step on the podium.



Out front, Lorenzo maintained the lead with Marquez holding steady in second and over the first half of the contest the two riders stretched a gap on the rest of the field. The battle for third was heated between Dovi and Rossi, the two riders swapping positions back and forth during the initial stages, and they were eventually joined by Pedrosa as the race reached mid-point. Rossi made a pass on Dovi stick and soon after Pedrosa got ahead of the Ducati ace as well, but Dovi had plenty of fight in him and stayed in the mix to the end. Pedrosa got ahead of Rossi for a brief period but with eight laps to go the Doctor passed back, grabbing third and holding there to the finish. Dovi tried to make it up the ranks late in the race too, putting himself into fourth ahead of Pedrosa, though just before the finish the Honda rider answered back.

Marquez stalked Lorenzo until the latter stages of the race, making his first move for the lead with seven laps to go. Lorenzo attempted to make a quick repass, but Marquez was successfully able to defend his position. The Yamaha rider held on, not letting Marquez build too large a gap, and it paid off with five laps remaining when Marquez ran it wide through a corner allowing Lorenzo to slip back in to the lead. The running order remained for the following laps as Marquez closed back up on the Lorenzo, and with three to go the Honda rider pushed hard to the inside, forcing Lorenzo to stand up briefly. The move put Marquez in the lead and set Lorenzo just far enough behind to be unable to challenge for the lead again before the finish.



“I’m very happy with this win,” said Marquez. “I expected the race to be slightly different, given what happened in practice yesterday, but today with higher temperatures it seems that both Jorge [Lorenzo] and Valentino [Rossi] took a step forward. Above all, Jorge, because he had a great pace and we were fighting right to the end. It was important to win today, after missing out at Brno. I also had a score to settle from last year, when Jorge beat me on the final corner, so I am happy to be back on the top step of the podium.”

“I lost a lot of time when he touched me,” said Lorenzo of Marquez’s late move for the lead. “I knew that he was going to try to overtake me in this corner in first gear on the right, but I didn’t let him enter. On the outside I opened the throttle and he touched me. In the next corner he touched me again as he went into the corner and I lost seven-tenths of a second. We started the weekend 1.3 seconds slower than Marc and we finished the weekend with being just seven-tenths slower than Marc after 20 laps. That’s fantastic! Thanks to a very good job from my team, all together we improved the bike. I rode well from the first corner to the last one and I did my best.”



Pedrosa finished in fourth followed by Dovi in fifth. Tech 3 Yamaha’s Pol Espargaro charged up the field through the race to finish sixth followed by LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl in seventh and Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone in eighth. Aleix Espargaro dropped down to ninth after his strong start, followed by Go & Fun Honda Gresini’s Scott Redding rounding out the top-10.

Marquez leaves Silverstone with an 89 point advantage over Pedrosa, who sits second overall. Rossi is third, 10 points adrift of Pedrosa, followed by Lorenzo in fourth and Dovizioso in fifth.

MotoGP Silverstone Results 2014 
1. Marc Marquez (Honda) 
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 
4. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 
6. Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) 
7. Stefan Bradl (Honda) 
8. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) 
9. Aleix Espargaro (Forward-Yamaha) 
10. Scott Redding (Honda) 
11. Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) 
12. Cal Crutchlow (Ducati) 
13. Karel Abraham (Honda) 
14. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 
15. Alex De Angelis (Forward-Yamaha) 
16. Leon Camier (Honda) 
17. Michael Laverty (PBM) 
18. Danilo Petrucci (ART) 
19. Hector Barbera (Avintia) 
20. Mike Di Meglio (Avintia) 
21. Broc Parkes (PBM) 
22. Bradley Smith (Yamaha)

MotoGP Championship Points 2014 
1. Marc Marquez, 288 
2. Dani Pedrosa, 199 
3. Valentino Rossi, 189 
4. Jorge Lorenzo, 157 
5. Andrea Dovizioso, 129 
6. Aleix Espargaro, 92 
7. Pol Espargaro, 88 
8. Andrea Iannone, 81 
9. Stefan Bradl, 74 
10. Bradley Smith, 65
 
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