MotoGP 2017: Dovizioso triumphs as Marquez DNF at British Grand Prix

Andrea Dovizioso takes his fourth win of the season as he pips Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi at Silverstone. Marc Marquez loses championship lead to Dovizioso as his Honda’s engine blows up, forcing an early retirement from the race. 

With Marc Marquez looking all strong and mighty fast all through the weekend, it was kind of a given that the Spaniard was the man to beat at the British Grand Prix today. But then as we’ve come to witness over all these years, there’s nothing certain in MotoGP and that’s exactly what happened at Silverstone today. Marquez had to retire owing to a technical glitch while title contender Dovizioso ran an impeccable race to take victory from the jaws of Yamaha duo of Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi.

The BritishGP began with Rossi taking the holeshot while pole man Marquez, Vinales, Crutchlow and factory Ducatis of Jorge Lorenzo and Dovizioso followed suit. In the next few laps, Rossi managed to pull a gap of just over a second from the rest of the chasing pack. Vinales dispatched Marquez for second in the meantime, whereas Dovizioso passed Lorenzo and Crutchlow. Dovizioso went on to overtake Marquez and eventually Vinales to go after the race leader, Rossi. Marquez, too, managed to displace Vinales for third. The gap between the race leader and the chasing pack was within half a second now with Dovizioso and Marquez quickly closing in on the Doctor lap after lap.

Marquez looked all set to take the charge from then on as he posted the fastest lap of the race. However, just after that, disaster struck as the Repsol Honda man had to retire since his motorcycle’s engine blew up. With Marquez gone, Dovizioso single-handedly took the task to beat Rossi. With two laps to go, Dovizioso overtook Rossi for the lead and never looked back. Vinales surprisingly was up there with the leading duo despite running a soft rear tyre. The Spaniard took the second spot from Rossi and was right behind Dovizioso on the final lap. That said, he wasn’t able to challenge the Ducati man and settled for second place. Rossi completed the podium.

Behind the podium finishers was Cal Crutchlow of LCR Honda in fourth. Lorenzo managed a solid fifth despite being hounded by Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco, who finished sixth. A struggling Pedrosa finished a lonely seventh. Scott Redding, Alex Rins and Alvaro Bautista rounded out the top 10.

With Marquez’ DNF, the championship has taken yet another swing. Dovizioso now leads with 183 points ahead of Marquez (174), Vinales (170) and Rossi (157).