MotoGP: Dovizioso shines in Silverstone sun

Andrea Dovizioso took victory in a British Grand Prix stunner, fighting off Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi for the win under the Silverstone sun.

It was Valentino Rossi who led the way in the early stages of the race and the nine-time world champion looked set to catapult himself back into championship contention as he led most of the race, but the chasing pack of team-mate Vinales, Dovizioso, Marc Marquez and local hero Cal Crutchlow were never far behind.

Marc Marquez seemed to be the man on the move as the race hit mid-distance as he looked to get past Dovizioso and chase down Rossi but a blown engine put pay to the Spaniard’s challenge at the end of the Hangar straight.

Dovizioso bided his time before using the Ducati’s sheer speed to draft past Rossi’s M1 and hold him off on the brakes into Stowe with three laps to go.

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Instantly pulling away, the move proved to be decisive as the Italian was able to pull enough of a gap to prevent Vinales, who set one of his fastest laps of the race on the final lap trying to reel him in.

Rossi finished his 300^th premiere class race in third ahead of Crutchlow, who crossed the line fourth in front of his home crowd with Jorge Lorenzo enjoying a strong race in fifth. With Jonas Folger out of the race following his morning warm-up crash, Johann Zarco took the sole Tech 3 Yamaha on the grid to another strong sixth place.

Dani Pedrosa was seventh ahead of Scott Redding with rookie Alex Rins enjoying his best result of the season for Suzuki in ninth ahead of Alvaro Bautista completing the top ten on his 250^th Grand Prix appearance.

With Marquez out, Dovizioso re-takes the lead of the 2017 championship standings by nine points with Vinales another four behind. 

For all the reaction, news and extensive analysis from the 2017 British Grand Prix, pick up Wednesday’s issue of MCN