Aleix Espargaró left for history a superb victory, with his soul, fought to the point of exhaustion, beating the champion, Pecco Bagnaia, in a heart-stopping last lap. It was the triumph of the stubbornness, perseverance and courage of the driver from Granollers, who had started from 12th place on the grid, and who brought out the best of himself when the rain began to fall at the British GP .
The Catalan rider, the oldest on the grid, at 34 years old, scores his second victory in MotoGP. He had not won a race in the premier class since the 2022 Argentine GP, 25 grand prix ago.
At the start -in the configuration of the F1 circuit-, Miller's KTM was the best accelerating, displaying the starting device of the Austrian bikes. It earned the Australian to take the lead, taking away the favor of Bezzecchi from pole position. Bagnaia surpassed Àlex Márquez -with a touch included-, who was fourth. The worst stopped was Jorge Martín, who went from seventh to last (22nd) when he collided with Binder, entered very strained in the first braking and left the track.
Miller's lead was short-lived. What it took for Bagnaia to overtake Bezzecchi and the Australian in the second lap, in the penultimate corner before the finish line. The champion began to open a gap, although with Bezzecchi stuck. They both opened a gap of almost a second over Àlex Márquez in just four laps; the Catalan, winner of the Sprint on Saturday, led the group of chasers, from which Maverick Viñales was eliminated due to a friction with Miller. So it was Aleix Espargaró who took over from fourth place, ahead of Binder.
The man on the Aprilia was really strong and took third place, ahead of Àlex Márquez. Espargaró also scored the best lap of the race. And immediately afterwards, the youngest of the Márquez family was forced to retire due to problems with the gearbox of his Ducati on lap 6/20, damaged in contact with Bagnaia, which caused his front wing to pop off. His gap favored Viñales to climb to 5th place.
The race turned more towards Bagnaia after the sixth lap with the unexpected crash of Bezzecchi. He approached the VR56 under braking to Bagnaia's red Ducati, but the front tire went off and he fell to the ground. The champion was left alone in front of the race. His immediate pursuer was now Aleix Espargaró, who was only 6 tenths (lap 7/20).
The Italian-Catalan duel was encouraged with the approach of Aleix Espargaró to Bagnaia at only 4 tenths; The one from Granollers was rolling six tenths faster. From behind, the fight for the third position on the podium intensified between Viñales and Binder, who took third place from him, although the man from Roses took the position from him again with an interior on lap 10, halfway through the race.
After crossing the halfway point of the race, Bagnaia continued to dominate with a small margin (3 tenths) over Aleix, and the man from Granollers saw his teammate Viñales in the rearview mirror, who had Binder stuck to him. They were the four contenders for the podium, with 8 laps to go.
With only 7 laps to go, the track marshals warned of rain and the possibility of changing motorcycles.
It was then that the fight for the victory between the top fantastic four was revolutionized. Viñales overtook his teammate Aleix, which Pecco took advantage of to open a small gap of 5 tenths. But as the drops increased, Binder, on his favorite terrain, launched an attack on the two Aprilias to move into second.
The two Catalans, with a very good rhythm, surpassed Binder with four laps to go. But the three were joined by a surprise guest; Miguel Oliveira, who had started 16th on the grid, had reached the top and ate Binder and Viñales in a dizzying overtake due to speed. The Portuguese loves the changeable condition of water-dry.
Aleix did not leave the Italian dam and with two laps to go he began to show him the Aprilia. He had Oliveira and Binder behind him. The most daring would take the cat to the water. In the last turn, 5 km long, Aleix returned to the charge, by pulling his Aprilia he passed him in the chained curves, he consolidated the first place, Bagnaia did not give up, he was on his heels, but Espargaró took the victory, pride, for courage and genius.
The falls followed one another in the final section. Marc Márquez and Enea Bastianini went to the ground together, in turn 12, in turn 15, in an incident that the cameras did not clarify. Later Fabio Quatararo also fell (v. 18).
Another race that the multi-champion from Cervera does not finish: 0 out of 9. He has not scored on any Sunday this year. In fact, he hasn't finished a race since 7th in Malaysia last year; this course, four falls and five absences on Sunday. A disaster.
"This weekend is to pick up the pace and to get a base for the bike," Marc Márquez ruled out any heroism at Silverstone on his return to a race after resigning at Assen and Sachsenring. Expectations of him have plummeted.
