Maverick Viñales (Suzuki) dominated the Silverstone MotoGP race earlier today by quickly taking a commanding lead that he held all the way to the checkered flag. A huge, race-long fight over second place ensued with Cal Crutchlow (Honda) ultimately taking the second spot on the podium ahead of Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in third.
This was not only the first MotoGP race win for Viñales, it was the first win for Suzuki since 2007 (Chris Vermeulen won a wet race that year).
Championship points leader Marc Marquez (Honda) finished fourth today, and continues to hold a commanding lead in the championship. For additional details, results and points, visit the official MotoGP site. Here are today’s finishers:
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap | |
| 1 | 25 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 172.1 | 39’03.559 | |
| 2 | 20 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda | Honda | 171.9 | +3.480 | |
| 3 | 16 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 171.9 | +4.063 | |
| 4 | 13 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 171.7 | +5.992 | |
| 5 | 11 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 171.7 | +6.381 | |
| 6 | 10 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | 171.3 | +12.303 | |
| 7 | 9 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 171.0 | +16.672 | |
| 8 | 8 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 170.7 | +19.432 | |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 170.3 | +25.618 | |
| 10 | 6 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 169.8 | +32.084 | |
| 11 | 5 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | 169.5 | +36.131 | |
| 12 | 4 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Pull & Bear Aspar Team | Ducati | 169.3 | +39.130 | |
| 13 | 3 | 22 | Alex LOWES | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 169.2 | +40.143 | |
| 14 | 2 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 169.2 | +41.356 | |
| 15 | 1 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 169.2 | +41.943 | |
| 16 | 43 | Jack MILLER | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 168.7 | +47.610 | ||
| 17 | 45 | Scott REDDING | GBR | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 164.0 | +1’56.177 | |
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | 171.9 | 6 Laps | |||
| 6 | Stefan BRADL | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 167.0 | 17 Laps | |||
See more of MD’s great photography:
One thing that always amazes me since I moved to France is the way different people dress for wildly different weather on the same day. Look at the top photo. You have everything from shorts and a Polo shirt to someone with a parka with the hood up. I see stuff like that outside my front door every day that is 70F or below.
I never would have expected Mav to win much less absolutely crush the field like that. It would appear that Suzuki really has something figured out. Can’t wait for next week’s race to see how the Suzuki performs.
And I didn’t expect Cruthlow to be dicing it up for a podium finish either in the dry. (Apparently, he was also surprised.)
It has been a very interesting season. All the seat changes should keep things interesting next year too. In the meantime, can’t wait for the next race!
By no means was this a “normal” dry race. This was a wet/changeable conditions weekend that resulted in a dark, dank, relatively dry Sunday. As a result of the various uncertainties, we saw Rossi, Crutchlow, and Vinales (the three podium finishers) using very different tires, compared to the rest of the probable frontrunners.
Miller’s win was a direct result of the rain. So was Crutchlow’s. Silverstone was not a normal dry weekend/race either, otherwise we would have seen Lorenzo closer to the front. (LOL)
Of all the new winners this year, only Iannone won without any benefit from inclement weather.
A win worth its ink in the history books. Dry race, no tire gambles, just good old racing. I am looking forward to next season, see what he can do on a tier 1 bike. I am sure he will impress.
Nice to see Suzuki back in the game.
Bravo to Maverick for living up the hype. Hopefully he can repeat and not turn in to another Spies.
Also, I honestly hope he will give his girlfriend an endless ration of hell for hiding her face over the last couple of laps! Poor girl must have been dying.
Suzuki’s first win in dry conditions since 2001 and the 2-stroke era. Congrats to Vinales and Suzuki for a brilliant victory and to Crutchlow for keeping MM off the podium.
I wonder where Suzuki suddenly acquired all that horsepower? Maverick is obviously a great rider, but he simply pulled cleanly away from the entire field – twice. We’ll never know, of course, but with everyone running the same ECU…? Great to see Suzuki win – it’s been way too long!
I was thinking the same thing. I have no data to base my conclusion on other than my familiarity with road going Suzuki sportbikes, but their engines always seem to have had a torque advantage to competing models from other manufacturers. Maybe a comparatively undersquare engine configuration and less electronic control gave Vinales more control of engine characteristics to pull out of corners on a tight and twisty track than the heavily electronics aided control of other manufacturer’s bikes, who knows?
Q: I wonder where Suzuki suddenly acquired all that horsepower?
BETTER Q: oooh what’s really going to bake your noodle is why is it your default assumption that Suzuki “acquired” something…? as opposed to the others “losing” something…? and how can this natural belief tendency be used to manipulate you for the benefit of the “show”…?
Suzuki is on the looser restrictions (9 engine allowance, open development), so if the others did “lose” something, I can only imagine that they’re stretching the life of tired engines to save fresh ones for tracks that they deem horsepower a higher priority that Silverstone.
They’ve had the power all year. It looks like they’ve figured something out on the electronics to better get that power to the ground in just the right quantities. It will be interesting to see in the remaining races if the bike is truly competitive or if perhaps there was something unique about Silverstone that allowed the Suzuki to shine.
congrats Suzuki, even Mckayla Maroney can’t deny you this internet meme…
#F@%KINGIMPRESSED.
MM is dangerous. I get it that there’ll always be occasional bumping in racing, but this is his standard mode of operation. Win at all cost, he’s going to kill someone one of these days.
I sincerely think MD.com is one of the best moto web pages. Minor point, when posting race results maybe consider a non-spoiler headline picture. Other than that keep doing like you do.
Hear hear!!Sometimes I just have not seen the MotoGP replay from my DVR yet. And BEIN Sports does this as well, reporting the race results just before broadcasting the the actual races. Lame!!
What a season! Another race, another unusual result. I wonder if we’ll look back on this as the season the high-dollar factory efforts were seriously neutralized?
Until now I haven’t seen what others have seen in Maverick – the hype seemed…over-hyped. But fair enough, credit where it’s due. I figured he was going to continue to improve and am glad to see he did it on the underdog Suzuki. First win since Vermeulen in 2007 in the wet. How long since a Suzuki win in the dry?
Great exciting race. Congrats to Maverick on a superb ride, to Cal for a great effort in front of the home crowd and to Iannone, Rossi, Cal, Marquez and Dani for putting on a great show at speeds up to 198 miles per hour. Well done gentlemen
why are the crew members standing on their tippy-toes?
Cause they were really on their toes today?
Slightly obscure but…credit where credit’s due. Pedro finished .389 secs behind points leader. He ain’t dead yet. Still wish he’d escaped to Yamaha for 2017.
The y seemed to be riding at the edge for the entire race, Marquez off track on frolic &detour twice and he fourth – ALIEN
Good to know Suzi did a podium.
Way to go Cal!
Come on Andrea… you have to finish more often… what’s going to think JL of it’s next year ride?
Great ride by Maverick. Also good to see the best looking factory bike (by virtue of having the least offensive winglet design. and no, I don’t count the Aprilias as factory bikes, even if they are.) make it to the top step. So, 7 winners so far this season, if I’m counting right? Maybe Dorna and the FIM should change tyre suppliers every season.
Isn’t this the 1st year all the bike brands have to use the same ECU for a more = playing field? Looks like it’s working. Congrats to Suzuki!