Valentino Rossi – 5 out of 10Īnother rider who faded away from a decent start then complained about the tyres, but in a far more subtle way than his young protege Pecco Bananas. (Trying to explain to a Rossi Muppet that Silverstone’s Vale corner is neither named after nor pronounced like their hero would be like re-enacting the “goes to 11” scene from Spinal Tap). This delighted the wearers of yellow #46 T-shirts in the crowd, who only know 3 things about MotoGP: Rossi’s favourite colour, Rossi’s race number, and which rider was 100% responsible for the legendary Rossi-Marquez collision at Sepang some years back. It was one of the most idiotic moves of Marquez’s stellar but crash-tainted career. Flat-out torpedoed the unfortunate Jorge Martin just a few corners into the race, causing them both to DNF. Marc Marquez – 1 out of 10īasically acted like a SuperSport 300 rider given a dodgy wildcard in his home MotoGP round. Incredibly, Cal was the second placed Yamaha in 17th place! Claimed he got some good information about the bike, such as how fast it would’ve gone if some random Japanese test rider was on it. This 14th placed finish doesn’t do much for his championship challenge, but he should arguably shut up until he’s won some MotoGP races and actually deserves a championship challenge. Had a good old Italian arm-waving session as he ranted about the useless Michelin tyres, claiming that he lost 3 seconds a lap. Selected other riders: Johann Zarco – 4 out of 10 The gargantuan Italian managed a rare top ten finish, but struggled to go any higher as he creates such a big slipstream that he may as well chuck following riders a tow rope. This was the highest finish of the various riders who claimed that issues with the shoddily-constructed French rubbers led to annoying little problems. Yet another bad qualifier who did well in the race. Tech 3 KTM may have been a tad hasty in sacking him. The rookie came from an atrocious qualifying position right at the back and did incredibly well to fight through to 7th. His qualifying sucked so he started way back in 12th, but battled impressively through the field to finish in 6th place. Finished up 5th, by far the best performance on a Honda by the younger Asparagus brother. Pol Asparagus – 8 out of 10Īfter a surprise pole position, Pol positioned himself at the front of the race until Quartarararo appeared, then disappeared.
Got his butt kicked by Aleix on the last lap to lose out on a podium, though. Had a lot of ground to make up from the start and overtook a load of people to get near the front. Or, more likely, it’s because Silverstone is a former airfield and the Aprilia looks like it bit a chunk off someone’s Cessna and is running around with it in its mouth. It could be that the Aprilia is quick around Silverstone because it’s a fast, flowing circuit with very few hard acceleration or braking points. The elder Asparagus brother was always quick on his day, but he stunned the world by putting an Aprilia on the podium. Even more impressive since Suzuki removed the pole squat device from their bikes for further development. (I even had to double check to make sure he really wasn’t the one that won the title last year). Normally Rins would be in about 10th place and being humiliated by his team mate, so it was a surprise to see him on the podium. If there had been riot police brutally assaulting them, it would’ve felt like he was back home in France. After starting the season in front of empty stands, it must have been a relief to be surrounded by hordes of people wearing yellow and shouting. It was a flawless performance from Fabio as he continued his quest to be the first MotoGP alien to identify as a Frenchman. Top ten riders rated out of ten: Fabio Quartarararo – 10 out of 10 How did the competitors fare as they tried to flee the grid and take refuge on the top step of the podium? Find out as we rate the riders. When MotoGP arrived in Silverstone, the former wartime airfield was overrun with Valeban extremists and there were no Yanks in sight.