Italian Marco Bezzecchi won an extraordinary restarted British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday, the Aprilia MotoGP rider coming from 11th place on the grid to storm to victory after long-time race leader Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) was forced to retire with a technical issue.
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Bezzecchi, who crossed to Aprilia from Ducati this season, won his fourth Grand Prix and for the first time since the 2023 Indian Grand Prix, and became the 11th different rider to win at Silverstone in the past 11 instalments of the British Grand Prix, and the fifth different race winner in succession this season.
Frenchman Johann Zarco (Honda), who won last time out at home in Le Mans to become the first Frenchman to win his home Grand Prix in 71 years, finished second, while Ducati’s world championship leader Marc Marquez extended his advantage at the top of the standings over younger brother Alex Marquez to 24 points by finishing third, Alex Marquez crossing the line in fifth place.
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“It’s amazing, it has been a really tough time for me in this past month,” Bezzecchi, who came into the race in 10th place in the championship standings and with a best result of sixth over the opening six rounds, said.
“I started a new adventure and Aprilia trusted in me, and we worked really hard. We’ve been through some tough periods in the past races, but we never gave up and the team made a wonderful job, and the whole factory in Noale [Italy]. I was waiting for a day like this.”
Australia’s Jack Miller stormed through from sixth on the grid to run in second place for four laps, the Yamaha rider eventually fading to seventh place, 7.398secs behind Bezzecchi at the chequered flag.
Miller, who finished ninth in Saturday’s sprint race won by Alex Marquez, scored his first points since round three in Texas, where he finished in a season-best fifth place.
Bezzecchi’s victory came after the original race, set for 20 laps, was red-flagged on lap two after a crash between Aleix Espargaro (Honda) and Franco Morbidelli (Ducati) left oil across the middle of the final two corners of the 18-turn layout, and after both Marquez siblings crashed out in earlier, separate, incidents.
Alex Marquez made a superb start to lead into the first turn before immediately crashing, while Marc Marquez crashed from the lead at turn 10 on the second lap before the race was stopped to clean the oil left by Morbidelli’s bike from the lap one accident with Espargaro.
Pole-sitter Quartararo, electing to use the soft-compound Michelin front tyre in the cool conditions, bolted when the race was restarted over 19 laps with a full grid as the original race was red-flagged within three laps.
The Frenchman built a lead of over five seconds, but was cruelly denied his first victory since the 2022 German Grand Prix when his Yamaha’s rear ride-height device became stuck on lap 12 when he had a 4.5-second advantage, the 2021 world champion distraught as he retired from the race.
Bezzecchi, one of seven riders to use the soft Michelin front tyre at the start, inherited the lead and cruised home by 4.088secs, with Zarco 1.9secs ahead of Marquez, who fell to ninth place on lap three after running wide while fighting with Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia, who crashed out on the following lap at turn eight.
Bezzecchi’s victory was Aprilia’s first win since Maverick Vinales won the Grand Prix of the Americas in April last year, and came at a time where the Italian’s teammate, reigning world champion Jorge Martin, is reportedly looking to use an escape clause in his contract to leave Aprilia after an injury-ravaged first season with the team after coming over from Ducati.
Round eight of the 22-round MotoGP season will take place at Aragon in Spain from June 6-8.