Honda’s defending World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) was back to his winning ways after a brief interruption at Brno, taking his eleventh victory in 12 races after a hard-fought race-long duel with long-time race leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha).

Marquez and the lead Yamaha rider kept a sun-soaked crowd of 67,500 on tenterhooks over the last five laps of the 20-lap MotoGP race round the fast and sprawling airfield circuit – at 5.9-km the longest lap of the year.

They changed places several times, but the decisive move came on lap 17, when a typically fierce attack from Marquez forced Lorenzo to lift mid-corner, and gave the 21-year-old defending champion enough breathing space to win by 0.732 of a second.

Second factory Repsol Honda RC213V rider Dani Pedrosa was less than ten seconds behind, engaged in another long and fierce battle for the last podium position. His rivals were Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati).

Pedrosa, who won the last round in the Czech Republic, managed to get back ahead of Dovizioso on the final lap, but his attempts at doing the same to Rossi failed by less than a tenth of a second.

Hondas triumphed also in the other two MotoGP classes, adding a hard-fought Moto3 win to the assured victory in the all-Honda Moto2 class.

Marquez’s win put the Spanish rider from the countryside west of Barcelona right back on target for an early dominant second championship in succession, increasing his points lead over second-placed Pedrosa to 89 points, with six races remaining.

He had won every one of the first ten races, but slipped to an out-of-character fourth at Brno when he ran into grip issues. Marquez started the British race from pole position, his tenth of the season. This was the former 125cc and Moto2 World Champion’s second Silverstone win, having previously enjoyed victory in 2010 in the 125cc class, and the 17th premier-class victory from 30 starts in his short career. He also claimed fastest lap, not quite four hundredths of a second short of team-mate Pedrosa’s 2013 lap record.

Although Pedrosa narrowly missed joining his compatriot on the podium, his close fourth place won important points in his own championship quest, losing only three points to nearest rival Rossi, who is still ten points behind.

Pedrosa started from the second row of the grid, and had to battle his way to try to close on the leaders after finishing the first lap sixth. He was engaged with Rossi and Dovizioso for most of the race. The former 125cc and double 250cc World Champion has claimed eight rostrum finishes this year, and never been lower than fifth.

Two more riders campaign the awesomely successful Honda RC213V in satellite teams, with former Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) finishing seventh after a strong race and fierce battle for the top-ten slots.

Former 125cc champion Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) had been in the same battle, and was fighting for places with Bradl when he slid off with just two laps to go.

Scott Redding (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RCV1000R) rides one of four new production-racer Honda RCV1000R machines, and once again was significantly the best of them in a strong home race, finishing tenth.

Two more of the close replicas of the factory machine finished in the points. Czech racer Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing Honda RCV1000R) was 13th after a lonely race, and former 250cc world champion Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R) one place lower.

The fourth RCV1000R was ridden for a third race by British former 125cc GP and World Superbike racer Leon Camier, taking the place of the recuperating Nicky Hayden on the second Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R. Camier impressed again, finishing 16th, one place out of the points.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 1st

“I’m very happy with this win! I expected the race to be slightly different, given what happened in practice yesterday, but today with higher temperatures it seems that both Jorge and Valentino 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,”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 4th

“Today’s race wasn’t easy. I had a bad start and on the opening laps I lost a little ground on the frontrunners, although to be honest I didn’t have the same pace as the leaders afterwards either. However, we fought with Valentino and Andrea and in the end we gained a place on the final lap. It hasn’t been our best weekend, but we will try to be back up at the front again at the next Grand Prix.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 7th

“Overall it’s not a bad result for us. I took a good start from the third row but in the beginning of the race I made a big mistake and dropped to 13th place. After that I did my best to repair the situation trying to get closer to the guys in front of me. I could catch them but suddenly Smith had a technical issue and I got stuck behind him. Once again I had to regain my pace but in the last laps I passed Iannone and Bautista (who crashed with two laps to go) and managed to finish seventh. We missed some rear grip since the first part of the race so we will work on this point before Misano.”

Scott Redding, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 10th

“I’m happy, even though at the beginning, with the full tank, I was struggling to stop and turn the bike; this is how the couple of guys in front of me went away a little bit in the early laps, but then I managed to keep Crutchlow and the other Open Hondas behind me, which was the main target. Towards the end of the race I was able to go faster, I got a good rhythm and I caught Hernandez, beating him on the finish line by 1.2 seconds. I’m happy also because I came back as top Brit under the chequered flag in my home race: I know that Smith had a problem, but for me was nice to beat Cal.”

Karel Abraham, Cardion AB Motoracing Honda: 13th

“This wasn´t a bad race, but it would be much better if I hadn´t lost so much in the first three laps. I was running practically the same lap times as Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding, but I couldn´t close the gap they made at the beginning of the race. On the other side the good news is that the gap behind me was also wide. This allowed me to finish the race without any risk.”

Hiroshi Aoyama, Drive M7 Aspar Honda: 14th

“I had a good feeling in the warm-up this morning and I was really hopeful of a strong comeback in the race but my feeling with the tyres just wasn’t the same, possibly because of the change in temperature. I was struggling in corner exit, the bike was moving around a lot and I couldn’t hold my corner speed. I tried to manage the tyres but the lap times were slower than we were hoping for and I also made a couple of mistakes in the first half of the race that cost me the odd position. I tried to keep my concentration after that to finish as high up as I could. I want to thank the mechanics for their relentless hard work, thanks to which I am feeling comfortable on this bike.”

Leon Camier, Drive M7 Aspar Honda: 16th

“It’s a bit of a strange feeling after this race because I think we could have done more. Something weird was happening with the brakes after the first few laps and I couldn’t get the bike stopped how I wanted. Nothing had changed from the rest of the weekend but the feeling wasn’t the same. I noticed something on the warm-up lap and almost ran off track. Despite all that I got a decent start and passed some riders but with this strange feeling on the brakes I had to ride differently and that cost me some positions. I had less confidence with the bike than I had yesterday, it was sliding a lot on the rear and I couldn’t show my best today, which was disappointing. I guess these things are down to experience and obviously we need more time to get used to this bike and this championship.”

Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: DNF

“Today during the warm up we tried some changes on the bike that allowed me to ride with more confidence and feel more comfortable, thus I was able to get a good rhythm in the race. I recovered some positions and I was fighting for seventh when unfortunately with less than two laps to go I lost the front and I crashed, but I really don’t know why. I was not forcing, I knew I couldn’t reach Pol Espargaro in front of me; my target was simply to finish the race without risk. Physically I’m fine, though the morale is not the best: we’re not having a good time, it’s clear. When you work hard and things are not going well it’s hard, but we try to maintain a positive attitude.”

Event results - Round 12

1 Marc Marquez 40'51.835 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 40'52.567 ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Valentino Rossi 41'00.354 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Dani Pedrosa 41'00.529 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Andrea Dovizioso 41'01.073 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Pol Espargaro 41'16.581 ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
7 Stefan Bradl 41'18.552 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Andrea Iannone 41'18.745 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
9 Aleix Espargaro 41'25.290 ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
10 Scott Redding 41'30.929 GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
11 Yonny Hernandez 41'32.090 COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
12 Cal Crutchlow 41'34.862 GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
13 Karel Abraham 41'44.080 CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 41'50.816 JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
15 Alex de Angelis 41'50.999 RSM FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
16 Leon Camier 41'57.515 GBR HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
17 Michael Laverty 42'02.774 WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
18 Danilo Petrucci 42'08.669 ITA ART IodaRacing Project
19 Hector Barbera 42'08.739 ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
20 Mike De Meglio 42'26.774 FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
21 Broc Parkes 42'30.277 AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Bradley Smith 42'39.042 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 288 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 199 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Valentino Rossi 189 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Jorge Lorenzo 157 pts ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Andrea Dovizioso 129 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
6 Aleix Espargaro 92 pts ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
7 Pol Espargaro 88 pts ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
8 Andrea Iannone 81 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
9 Stefan Bradl 74 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
10 Bradley Smith 65 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Alvaro Bautista 56 pts ESP HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
12 Scott Redding 52 pts GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
13 Cal Crutchlow 40 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 39 pts JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
15 Yonny Hernandez 32 pts COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Nicky Hayden 28 pts USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
17 Karel Abraham 28 pts CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
18 Michele Pirro 11 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
19 Colin Edwards 11 pts USA FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
20 Broc Parkes 7 pts AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Mike De Meglio 4 pts FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
22 Danilo Petrucci 4 pts ITA ART IodaRacing Project
23 Michael Laverty 2 pts WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
24 Hector Barbera 2 pts ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
25 Leon Camier 1 pts GBR HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
26 Alex de Angelis 1 pts RSM FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
27 Michel Fabrizio 0 pts ITA ART IodaRacing Project

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