- Jorge Lorenzo wins on MotoGP return to Silverstone

The fifth round of the series was to be the British Grand Prix, this year being held at the Silverstone circuit, the historic former airfield venue. From the beginning of the world championship, the long-standing Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races had been included as the British round. With most of the leading riders starting to miss out the TT on safety grounds, the British GP at Silverstone was established as a championship round in 1977 instead. The stand-alone John Player GP had previously been held there.

Silverstone hosted the event for ten years, and of course one of the stand-out races was the classic 500cc encounter in 1979. Home favourite Barry Sheene (Suzuki) went wheel-to-wheel with Kenny Roberts of the USA (Yamaha), with reigning title holder Roberts just getting the verdict. Sheene never managed to win the British GP, and in the end a crash at the circuit almost ended his career in 1982. Roberts won three times, but most successful were Kork Ballington (six wins), Anton Mang and Angel Nieto (five each), variously in the 350cc, 250cc and 125cc classes.

The race moved to Donington Park for 1987, and remained there until 2009, when news came that the track would be radically altered to bring the Formula One cars in for 2010. With Silverstone apparently losing the F1 race, they were quick to swoop and agree a deal for MotoGP instead. But of course in the end the necessary changes at Donington failed to reach completion, and Silverstone ended up with both races this year, and into the future.

Beyond 1986, Silverstone has still hosted major motorcycle races. British Superbikes gained a permanent fixture in 1998, using the International circuit. The Superbike World Championship visited in the period 2002-2007, on the full Grand Prix circuit, and with that in mind current MotoGP rider Colin Edwards was the sole man with some competitive track knowledge. He had been first and second in the SBK races eight years ago.

But for Grand Prix bikes to return after a 23-year absence significant track alterations were required. A new infield section started at Abbey corner and also used the back straight from the Club circuit, feeding into the Brooklands corner and the familiar final turns. From the Abbey right to the straight, now named Wellington, there is the fast left Farm, tight right Village, tight left The Loop and fast left Aintree. The remainder of the existing F1 track is intact for use by the bikes.

Valentino Rossi was absent at Silverstone, but Yamaha WSB rider Cal Crutchlow was able to confirm that he had been offered a Yamaha MotoGP slot at future races, in the absence of Rossi, presumably at the Tech 3 team so that Edwards could move over to the works machine. The 24-year-old English rider revealed that he had turned down the offer, preferring to concentrate on his Superbike series challenge. There was to be no substitute rider at this race, which presumably frustrated recent Tech 3 man James Toseland, who would surely have liked a third GP crack in front of his home crowd.

The updated circuit saw a few crashes for riders during the various practice sessions. In qualifying, one of these befell Randy de Puniet with the Playboy LCR Honda. Despite this, the 29-year-old Frenchman had put his customer RCV second on the grid, matching his best performance with the works Kawasaki at Barcelona three years ago. Practice crashes were also suffered by Pedrosa and Ben Spies (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha), but again the Spaniard was well up on the grid in third. In pole, for the first time this year, was championship leader Lorenzo.

Honda had three men on the tail of the Fiat Yamaha rider, with de Puniet and Pedrosa followed by the second Repsol man, Andrea Dovizioso, fourth his best of the year so far. Then came the two Marlboro Ducati pilots, Nicky Hayden just ahead of Casey Stoner for a change. Spies was seventh, this time on a level with all the others in his unfamiliarity with the venue - but although team-mate Edwards knew perhaps 70% of the latest track, he was only tenth.

The San Carlo Gresini Honda riders seemed to like the track, with both Marco Melandri (eighth) and Marco Simoncelli (ninth) improving on all previous grid slots this year. After Edwards, there was also an improvement for Héctor Barberá (11th for Aspar Ducati). Then it was Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda), Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Ducati), Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista (both Rizla Suzuki) and the not fully fit Mika Kallio (Pramac). There were just sixteen riders taking part.

The Sunday morning warm-up saw another couple of crashes, one leaving Pedrosa a bit second-hand but still starting the race. But the number on the grid was down to fifteen, as Aoyama’s incident at the Vale section ruled him out. For the getaway to the race, most of the leading qualifiers got away roughly in the same order, but with the exception of Stoner, who nearly stalled the Ducati. He went into the right-handed turn one at Copse in last place, and was only up three places to twelfth towards the end of lap one.

Lorenzo led, with Pedrosa quick to take second from de Puniet as they headed Dovizioso, Hayden, Spies, Melandri and Simoncelli. The Stowe corner is a right-hander at the end of the fast Hangar straight, and has often been the location of out-braking passes. The first time into there saw Pedrosa do this to Lorenzo and lead, but at the following left into the tight Vale bend Jorge retook the position. Dani went for it again into Abbey but made a mistake and allowed the Yamaha through again. Then de Puniet got by the Repsol man at Village, quickly followed by Dovizioso.

From seventh position, Melandri crashed out at the long Brooklands left when he lost the front, so the first lap finished with Lorenzo heading Dovizioso, de Puniet, Pedrosa, Hayden, Simoncelli and Spies, with a gap to Edwards and the rest. More progress from Stoner saw him into eleventh, behind Capirossi and Barberá, and ahead of Espargaró, Kallio and Bautista. Lorenzo was quickest, and already starting to build a margin of advantage, and meanwhile de Puniet now regained second from Dovizioso at Stowe.

Following his earlier crash, it soon looked like Pedrosa was beginning to struggle to match the leading pace. With Lorenzo, de Puniet and Dovizioso starting to move clear ahead, Dani had Hayden, Simoncelli and Spies right behind him. Nicky went past when his former Honda team-mate made a mistake at Village, and before long Pedrosa was fighting it out with class rookie and Honda customer rider Simoncelli. Hayden began to pull away as soon as he cleared the Spaniard.

Lorenzo was setting new fastest laps, so that seven laps in he was five seconds clear of the Honda contest. With ten of twenty laps gone it was eight seconds. Dovizioso tried to attack de Puniet for second at Stowe, and a few laps later got it right as he used the slipstream along Hangar straight and could get the inside line just before the braking zone for Stowe. Randy had another spell in second when he passed on the inside for the Village right-hander, but Andrea would soon get back through and start to leave the French rider to deal with attention from behind.

Hayden had been catching the two men ahead, while Spies had gone past Simoncelli for sixth. The two MotoGP new boys were then able to work their way past Pedrosa, with Marco getting through at The Loop. As Dani fell back, he came into range for the charging Stoner, now up to eighth. Nicky tagged on behind de Puniet, just adrift of Dovizioso, with Spies managing to stay not far behind as Simoncelli lost ground. Stoner took seventh from Pedrosa on the inside at Stowe, then took sixth from Simoncelli on the inside at Brooklands.

Third placed man de Puniet had opted for the harder compound rear Bridgestone tyre, but nevertheless in the last few laps he would lose out. Hayden went past him on the inside at The Loop, then Spies did the same thing at Brooklands. Stoner was right with these guys by now, and three laps from the end he passed Randy at Brooklands to put the French rider back to fifth. Lorenzo was well clear and eased off in the late stages to take his third win of 2010. Dovizioso was by then safe enough and took second.

But the final podium spot was disputed to the flag. Hayden led Spies, Stoner and de Puniet, and on the last lap Ben tried for the inside pass on Nicky at Stowe. Three bends later, at Abbey, the Ducati rider drifted wide and Spies got through to take third, which he held onto as Hayden and Stoner followed him home. Fifth man de Puniet was clear of Simoncelli, who headed Pedrosa over the line. Edwards had held on as best of the rest, with Espargaró moving through for tenth. Dovizioso, Spies and Simoncelli each took their best result of the season to date, with Ben on the GP podium for the first time.

The contest for the last few places had been between Barberá and the Suzuki pair, with Kallio only able to trail again. Bautista overtook his Spanish rival, with Capirossi trying to follow suit. Loris went through at Copse, but then ran out into the gravel trap and fell. With two men out, one non-starter and one man absent, that left thirteen men to stay the course. In the end Barberá headed Bautista and Kallio in the last three positions. Meanwhile, Lorenzo’s English-themed celebration involved joining up with three other men, the entire quartet wearing colourful military-style overcoats, as worn by the Beatles for the cover of their acclaimed 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

With Valentino Rossi out of action, Dani Pedrosa not fully fit on the day, and Casey Stoner on the pace but coming from behind, Jorge Lorenzo ran out the unchallenged winner in the first MotoGP race at the new Silverstone. His championship lead was well and truly strengthened to a useful 37-point advantage over Andrea Dovizioso, even though his most realistic challenger now is surely Pedrosa, who is five points further back. But despite Lorenzo’s performance, there was a proper racing contest for the minor podium places, and Silverstone from that point of view was as successful as Donington Park. Given the wet conditions that have hit Donington a few times, there could be some more engaging drama on this circuit in the future.

There was plenty of reason to give credit to Ben Spies for his first Grand Prix podium result in only his ninth start at this level. He had managed a best of sixth for Suzuki in 2008, seventh from just a single outing for Yamaha last year, and had already been fifth earlier this year. He has been ahead of experienced team-mate Colin Edwards in each of the three races they have both finished this year, and has only had prior knowledge of one of the tracks so far. This time he beat Nicky Hayden at the end, making four finishes in fourth place for the Ducati rider, who once again was ahead of Stoner at the flag. Can one of them get to the podium next time?

Standings after five races: Lorenzo 115; Dovizioso 78; Pedrosa 73; Rossi 61; Hayden 52; de Puniet 46; Spies 36; Stoner 35; Melandri and Simoncelli 32; Edwards 26; Barberá 24.
Yamaha 120; Honda 97; Ducati 65; Suzuki 23.

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