French rider and championship leader, Johann Zarco, stormed to victory at Silverstone, taking the victory by over three seconds over Alex Rins of Paginas Amarillas HP 40, which helps the Spaniard leapfrog Tito Rabat into second place in the championship.

With the British Grand Prix victory, Zarco now extends his lead at the top to 85 points.

It had been declared as a wet race. The riders waited nervously for the lights to go out and it was initially Rabat who made it to Turn 1 in first place. Sam Lowes, who had stuck his Speed Up Racing bike on pole yesterday, found himself swamped and tumbled down to seventh place quickly. Zarco kept Rabat in his sights, leading Rins and Jonas Folger of the AGR Team. It did not take the championship leader Zarco long before he took the lead on Lap 2.

An unusual mistake by Zarco, braking too late and going wide, allowed Rins to slip into the lead and the poinys leader had to settle down into fourth place behind Rabat and Folger. 

British wildcard rider Bradley Ray was the first casualty of the race; he was having to fight from the back of the grid, but pushing hard in wet conditions saw him crash out on the second lap.

Rins, Zarco and Rabat were swapping the lead and sticking close to each other until Zarco stepped up to lead the race from Lap 6. Two low-order riders, Louis Rossi and Florian Alt, had been in for slick tyres one lap before. It appeared a very bold and dangerous mood but on their return to the track it was evident that the circuit was drying out. The rest of the field were still on wets and by Lap 8 the degredation of Rabat's tires was obvious.

With five laps remaining of the race, Rins snapped underneath Rabat to grab second place but he was over four seconds behind Zarco who was looking smooth through the corners and commanding on the fast Silverstone straights. The riders who had changed to slicks began getting their laps back, passing the leading riders who were struggling to keep their bikes under control. Luthi's bike was twitching badly from the front and he was finding it hard to keep the bike on the racing line.

With two laps to go, Rabat ran wide at Club, a corner that has seen no shortage of drama over the years. Marquez squeezed  by, but as soon as they reached Abbey, Rabat was back in front of his team mate.

Zarco romped home to victory, 3.360 seconds ahead of Rins, with a very impressive Rabat in third place. With the condition his tires were in at the end of the race, Rabat's finishing position is remarkable.

Marquez took fourth, with Folger in fifth. Lowes managed to salvage a sixth place result but was visibly unhappy with it, slapping his bike's tank soon after the checkered flag. Lowe's team mate, Anthony West, put in an impressive performance to take seventh.

Next up for the three categories of the MotoGP World Championship is Misano World Circuit Marco Simonecelli on September 13th. Stay tuned to @VAVELMotoGP on Twitter for coverage leading up to and during the upcoming round in Italy.


Neil Simmons is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @world_racing.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Neil Simmons
Passionate motor racing fan since 1976 and published writer. Covering MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3