MotoGP World Championship: Jorge Lorenzo reigns at Silverstone

Drama came into play during the morning warm up for the 2013 Hertz British Grand Prix. Two riders got caught out by the cold conditions and crashed their bikes at Brooklands; Carl Crutchlow in his Monster Yamaha Tech3 slid out, and after a few seconds, Marc Marquez in his Repsol Honda followed suit. The marshals who were retrieving Crutchlow’s bike had to scamper for safety as the Honda of Marquez tumbled towards the stricken bike. Marc dislocated his left shoulder and had to be rushed to the emergency room to have it popped back into its socket.

Marc was cleared to race in the afternoon, and took his position on pole for the start of the race.

As the red light went off, Jorge Lorenzo got a fantastic start and squeezed past Marquez at Copse. Marquez, aided by the pain killers administered to his shoulder before the race start, was shadowing Lorenzo all throughout the afternoon.

Valentino Rossi made a good start from sixth and jumped to third place by the end of the first lap but Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista fought it out with Rossi for the fourth spot. Dani Pedrosa, starting on fifth, clawed his way to third by Lap 4, and set his sights on the leaders. But as he struggled with grip, Pedrosa settled for third, 1.5 seconds behind the leaders.

In the final two laps, Marquez decided to make his move and dove to the left of Jorge into Brooklands, but Lorenzo outbraked the 20-year old at Vale to retake the lead, and in the final lap, Marquez again took Jorge at the same corner only to be overtaken by the eventual race winner at Luffield. The gap between the two rivals was only 0.081 seconds at the flag.

The championship standings remain the same Marquez still holds a 30 point lead over Pedrosa, and 39 points to Lorenzo. Valentino is 77 points behind the leader.

Next stop will be in San Marino in two weeks time. Can Marquez add to his already impressive tally of 5 wins in his rookie season? Or can Lorenzo make it two wins in a row? Or will Dani Pedrosa get his third win of the season? All I know is that a Spanish rider will remain on the top spot of the leader board for some time.