The world upside down. There is no mistake in this return to the MotoGP World Championship, after a five-week summer break: Àlex Márquez won the Silverstone Sprint, while his brother Marc finished 18th, fifth from bottom, being the second slowest rider in the clue. Seeing is believing. The youngest of the Cervera brothers rides a Ducati; the eldest, the multi-champion, with a Honda.
“It’s a Sprint victory, but better than nothing. It’s the best way to start the second part of the season. Also, with a front row start. I was convinced that today could be the day of my first victory”, commented Àlex Márquez, who stormed the lead in the second of the 10 laps of the short race. “Since the third lap I have seen that he had very good traction and a very good feeling, and that he could win,” acknowledged the Catalan.
Feeling soft on the wet track, the riders were cautious at the start. Bezzecchi held on to pole position at the start, but it was short-lived under the impetus of Miller, an accomplished water specialist. However, the one who made the most progress was a Jorge Martín wanting to give a blow to Bagnaia’s leadership. The man from Madrid jumped from 7th to 4th place at the start, and was already fighting with Miller for the lead before the first pass through the finish line. He got around to passing the Australian, but Miller rallied and held on to the lead.
Bagnaia, the leader, had one of those difficult days, to be forgotten: from 4th at the start he went to 8th at the start and soon fell to 12th place, surpassed by the middle class of Aleix Espargaró, Zarco , Binder or Marini.
The surprise of the Sprint was Àlex Márquez, who starting third on the grid, kept his pace at the start behind Miller and Bezzecchi, continued in front when Martín pushed hard, and caught up with Miller on the second lap to take the lead, for first time as a Ducati rider. The man from Cervera, very solid, put Bezzecchi by 5 tenths on the fourth lap, which became 1 second on the fifth, halfway through a short race. Àlex left, while Martín sank and relieved him in front of Viñales, fourth, behind Miller.
With three laps to go, Àlex Márquez held a 1.3 second lead over Bezzecchi and 2.7 over Viñales, who had passed Miller for third place. Aleix Espagaró followed the path of his Aprilia teammate to place fourth.
In the last two laps, the youngest of the Márquez did not drop his performance, he kept 8-9 tenths of a lead on Bezzecchi, who pressed him and came to reduce the advantage to only 4 tenths, taking advantage of the uncertainty of the first drops of rain in Silverstone.
Àlex held on and took all 12 points of the Sprint victory, his first success on the Ducati. Bezzecchi and Viñales accompanied him on the podium.
The leader, Bagnaia, 14th, was left without points for the first time on Saturday; the only one who has done it is Jorge Martín, sixth.
For his part, Marc Márquez, who started 14th on the grid, had a very discreet return to the World Cup. He was losing positions in the middle of the race, surpassed by Oliveira, Di Giannantonio, Pol Espargaró -in his return to competition four months after the tremendous accident in Portugal- or Morbidelli. He even surpassed his teammate Joan Mir (returning from the injury from Italy), which sent him down to 19th. Marc was the second slowest on the track.
