MotoGP Silverstone: Enea Bastianini completes the British Grand Prix double

Enea Bastianini has kept himself within striking distance in this year’s MotoGP title fight after completing the double at Silverstone.

The Italian produced an immaculate performance in Sunday’s Grand Prix to claim victory ahead of Jorge Martin. As we’ve become accustomed to with Bastianini, the ‘Beast’ had excellent late race pace and made easy work of both Martin and Pecco Bagnaia.

Bastianini made his move on the penultimate lap when Martin ran wide into Village, and pulled away easily to cross the line with an advantage of 1.931s.

Victory moves Bastianini to within 49 points of Martin, who now leads the championship after finishing second. He’s three points clear of Bagnaia, who, despite leading the first half of the race, was unable to match the pace of his fellow Ducati riders.

Marc Marquez was the leading Ducati GP23 rider in fourth after making a move on Aleix Espargaro on lap 16. Fabio Di Giannantonio overtook Espargaro on the final lap to complete the top five.

Espargaro was sixth ahead of Alex Marquez, with the latter engaging in an entertaining battle with Di Giannantonio in the early stages of the race. Marco Bezzecchi was eighth, ahead of Pedro Acosta and Franco Morbidelli.

Morbidelli had to fight his way back through the order after serving a double long lap penalty after causing the turn one incident with Bezzecchi in the Sprint race.

Fabio Quartararo was 11^th onboard the Monster Energy Yamaha, crossing the line ahead of Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales. Johann Zarco and Luca Marini claimed the final two points on offer at Silverstone.

Takaaki Nakagami, Augusto Fernandez and Remy Gardner were the final classified riders.

Trackhouse Racing Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira both crashed out on the opening lap, whilst Brad Binder suffered from a technical problem at the start of the race. The South African held his hand up to warn hose around him that he had an issue, which later turned out to be a clutch problem.

Joan Mir returned to the Repsol Honda garage to retire whilst battling for the final point scoring positions.

See Sprint race report below.

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Enea Bastianini claimed his first victory of the 2024 MotoGP season in an eventful Sprint race at Silverstone which included crashes for Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

Jorge Martin led the first half of the race after a great start from the second row, but was overtaken by Bastianini with five laps remaining. Bastianini quickly opened up a healthy advantage over his rival, crossing the line with a lead of 1.094s.

It’s Bastianini’s first-ever Sprint victory and he moves up into third in the championship after Marc Marquez crashed out of fourth place at turn 16. Bastianini is one point ahead of Marquez and 55 points behind the championship leader.

Meanwhile, Martin is now only one point behind Bagnaia following the latter’s crash at turn four on the fifth lap of the race. Bagnaia was circulating in fourth when he hit the deck.

Brad Binder finished fourth for Red Bull KTM ahead of Pedro Acosta. The two RC16 racers made contact with one another on the second lap when Acosta clipped the back of Binder, losing some aero pieces as a result.

Last year’s Sprint winner Alex Marquez was sixth ahead of a rejuvenated Jack Miller, who made it three KTMs inside the top seven. Maverick Vinales, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Miguel Oliveira completed the top 10. Di Giannantonio was in eighth when he was handed a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits, but battled back after initially dropping to 11th.

Fabio Quartararo came home in 11^th on the one and only Yamaha still remaining this weekend following Alex Rins’ withdrawal due to a wrist injury. Raul Fernandez pipped Augusto Fernandez to 12^th by just 0.092s.

Johann Zarco was the leading Honda rider in 14^th ahead of Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini and Joan Mir and LCR Honda teammate Takaaki Nakagami. Wildcard entrant Remy Gardner was the final finisher in 18^th.

Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli crashed out of the race at the first corner when the latter crashed into the back of Bezzecchi. It’s unclear at this stage if there was an issue on the bike or if it was a mistake by Morbidelli, but the incident is currently being reviewed by the stewards.

Both men were conscious but were taken to the medical centre for a check-up. Morbidelli was seen being helped away by a marshal, unable to walk comfortably by himself.

Tomorrow’s Grand Prix is due to begin at 13:00. In a slightly different schedule to normal in MotoGP, the premier class event takes place after the Moto3 race (11:15), but before Moto2 (14:30).

See qualifying report below…

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Aleix Espargaro picked up where he left off at last year’s British Grand Prix by securing his second pole position of the 2024 MotoGP season at Silverstone.

The Aprilia man stayed clear of the usual Q2 shenanigans, with riders cruising and trying to find a tow behind the leading riders, and had clear track around him. As a result, Espargaro recorded the fastest-ever MotoGP lap of Silverstone with a 1:57.309.

Nobody was able to challenge Espargaro’s lap-time due to a crash for Maverick Vinales at turn two which brought out the yellow flags. Fortunately, Vinales was able to get up and walk away from his stricken RS-GP.

Earlier in the session Pecco Bagnaia had broken the lap record with a 1:57.517, but his final flying lap came to a premature end due to an issue with his visor. Still, that lap-time was good enough for second on the grid.

Enea Bastianini was third fastest ahead of Jorge Martin, with Alex Marquez, who topped Q1, completing the top five onboard the Gresini Racing Ducati.

Brad Binder was the leading KTM rider in sixth ahead of Marc Marquez, with the latter visually frustrated with Marco Bezzecchi after finding himself stuck behind the slower Pertamini Enduro VR46 Racing Ducati rider.

Vinales qualified eighth ahead of Pedro Acosta, who had to go through Q1 this morning, with Fabio Di Giannantonio completing the top 10. It was revealed on Friday that Di Giannantonio will receive a full factory GP25 next season, with the VR46 team becoming the official satellite effort for Ducati.

Jack Miller and Bezzecchi were the final classified riders in Q2.

Franco Morbidelli missed out on a spot inside Q2 by 0.191, as did Raul Fernandez onboard the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia RS-GP. Miguel Oliveira completes the fifth row on the second of the Trackhouse bikes.

Johann Zarco is the leading Honda rider 16^th ahead of Augusto Fernandez and Fabio Quartararo, whilst Luca Marini heads row seven onboard the Repsol Honda. Teammate Joan Mir, Takaaki Nakagami and wildcard entrant Remy Gardner complete the grid.

Alex Rins has withdrawn from the weekend due to ongoing complications with the wrist injury he sustained in his opening lap crash at Assen.

The Spaniard missed the last round at the Sachsenring after undergoing surgery, and admitted yesterday that he was in more pain than he expected to be in during Friday’s practice sessions.

The Sprint race at Silverstone is scheduled to begin at 15:00.