Thundering up from a 12th-place starting position, Aleix Espargaro took the lead on the final lap and held off Francesco Bagnaia for his first MotoGP win of 2023 and the second of his career in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
“From Lap 1 even though I was starting 12th I felt immediately super good with the bike,” Espargaro said. “It was one of those days when you felt invincible.
“The bike was turning, a lot of grip, braking stability. … At that time my plan was to pass and start to pull away, but when it started to rain, I decided to stay quiet behind (Bagnaia). It’s better if he opens the track but on the last lap I had something more and tried to overtake him. The last lap was very dramatic.”
Bagnaia led every circuit of the GP except the first and last laps of the 20-lap affair.
“It was tricky,” Bagnaia said. “I just tried with the leadership to take control of the race, I tried to push, but we chose a soft front tire for the race for the temperature and it was a bit on the limit. It is very easy on our bike to lose the front.
“When it started to rain, I didn’t know how much to push – what was the limit – but finishing second is a great result.”
It took only four laps for Espargaro move up to a podium position and he closed rapidly on the leaders.
Riding third, Espargaro had a great view of the points’ battle playing out in front of him. After Marco Bezzecchi made up nine points on Bagnaia in the sprint race, Bagnaia was determined to get some of those back. He started fourth and passed polesitter Jack Miller for the lead on Lap 2.
Bezzecchi kept pace with Bagnaia for the first five laps until his front wheel lost grip and sent him into a gravel trap.
“I’m okay,” Bezzecchi said after the race. “Fortunately, it was high speed but I slid so it was not a big problem. Before the crash it happened that as soon as I braked I had the front lock (up) so I had to release the brake immediately.
“Once I released the brake I got into the slipstream of (Bagnaia). Instead of slowing down, the bike was going very fast. Keeping the brake, the front started shaking and then I lost the front.”
With Bezzecchi out of the picture, Espargaro assumed the draft off Bagnaia and stayed there for the remainder of the race, losing the second spot momentarily to Maverik Vinales and he, Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira joined the fray when the track slickened at the halfway point.
Binder held on to take the final spot on the podium.
Fourth-place Oliveira and Vinales rounded out the top five.
The 2020 MotoGP champion Quartararo has had a miserable season that shows him 11th in the points’ standings. He struggled massively in qualification was unable to make up more than one position in the sprint race.
It appeared Quartararo would fare much better in the 20-lap race, moving up to 13th in the first two laps after starting last. Quartararo got into the top 10 and was riding seventh with three laps remaining before crashing into another rider and damaging his bike. He rode back to the pits and mounted his rain bike to complete the race in 15th.
Returning from an injury suffered in practice for the opening round of the 2023 season, Aleix’s brother Pol Espargaro finished 12th.
