If you haven’t seen today’s British GP at Silverstone, stop reading this article, and go watch your Tivo right now. We can hardly contain ourselves after watching the race, so we’ll keep this intro short. While the race winner is not going to surprise too many GP race fans, it’s the rest of the finishes that had us jumping up and down on our chairs. Spoilers after the jump.
Dovi beats Pedrosa, Hayden beats Stoner, de Puniet continues not to crash, and the ultimate event….Spies takes a podium. There! We finally got it out before bursting! After favorable remarks from all the riders about Silverstone’s new layout, the British track has seemingly tossed up the pecking order at the four major teams in MotoGP. Fiat-Yamaha can rest assured that they’ll likely take another Championship, even with Valentino Rossi injured, as Jorge Lorenzo looked well in control of today’s race.
But for Marlboro Ducati, the British GP was a shake up to what otherwise would have been business as usual. Nicky Hayden not only qualified for the first time ahead of his teammate Casey Stoner, but the American Champion found himself beating the Australian in today’s race, if only by a couple tenths of a second.
Opposite day continued as Repsol Honda saw the continued meltdown of Dani Pedrosa who finished 8th. Meanwhile his Pedrosa’s teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, continued to carry the HRC flag, and took the second step on the winners’ podium.
Our favorite outcome of the day was the event all American’s have been waiting for: Ben Spies standing on a MotoGP podium. Taking a close third place, and beating out the two Marlboro Ducatis, Spies bested Team Texas teammate Colin Edwards who finsihed 9th for the day. This very well could be a glimpse at things to come in the Yamaha camp.
In other news, celebrating Texans have crossed the border into Oklahoma, claiming the Panhandle State as new sovereign Texan territory, which will now be known as Spiestoria. Huzzah!
Race Results from MotoGP at the British GP:
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Time | Diff |
| 1 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 41’34.083 | - |
| 2 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | HONDA | 41’40.826 | 6.743 |
| 3 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 41’41.180 | 7.097 |
| 4 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 41’41.397 | 7.314 |
| 5 | 27 | Casey STONER | DUCATI | 41’41.577 | 7.494 |
| 6 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | HONDA | 41’43.138 | 9.055 |
| 7 | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | HONDA | 41’48.508 | 14.425 |
| 8 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 41’49.396 | 15.313 |
| 9 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | YAMAHA | 42’02.037 | 27.954 |
| 10 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | DUCATI | 42’16.477 | 42.394 |
| 11 | 40 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 42’17.448 | 43.365 |
| 12 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SUZUKI | 42’17.491 | 43.408 |
| 13 | 36 | Mika KALLIO | DUCATI | 42’17.663 | 43.580 |
| Not Classified | |||||
| 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | SUZUKI | 27’33.079 | 7 laps | |
| Not finished first lap | |||||
| 33 | Marco MELANDRI | HONDA | - | - | |
Made all the more impressive by the fact that A) his bike is supposedly down on power quite a bit from the other M1s, and B) he may still be riding on a fractured ankle.
Heh, the tags kinda gave it away for the folks that didn’t know the results. Gutted about Hayden though – he rode his socks off. If he had to be beaten by anyone I’m sort of glad it was Spies.
Bloody shameful that there were no Brit wildcards on the grid. Not that there was much of a grid anyways. Every MotoGP starter is guaranteed a point these days, it seems. Except the suzooks!
I’m a Hayden fan, and have never liked Spies, so it was a heartbreaker for me. Can’t say it wasn’t exciting though, almost as good as a WSBK race…
Ducati is having a bad year in both series. To be beat by a Satellite Team…they really need to get it in gear. I still blame the Multistroodle for dulling Ducati’s hardcore racebike blade!
WHAT A FANTASTIC RACE!!!!
I watched it live and OMG! I am a mad Casey supporter and WHAT A RIDE!!!
But woosh!!! I was cheering for Spies, congratulations to him! What an amazing ride by him as well, and boy didnt he punish Nicky for his error! ROARED past him!
Best race all year so far (GP series)
Seriously though, this is the second time there has been a huge battle going on during the last lap, and they cut to Lorenzo way off in front crossing the line, and a moronic shot of his crew cheering. Sheer bafoonery on the part of the broadcast director.
Nice! DVR here i come. RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Boom Goes the Dynamite! – First Podium For… – http://aspha.lt/13i #motorcycle
+1 with Sean. It looked like Nicky might take his spot back, then they cut to Whore-Gay crossing the line. Great editing, you cunts.
They ALWAYS cut to the leader crossing the line. Its all most news programs will show, so it will always happen. What was really irritating was the 1/2 a lap of Lorenzo they showed a lap or two earlier .
They do have to show the winner of the race, it’s kind of the point of racing – winning, I mean. Bit silly to miss that. As it happens, no crucial action was missed, no harm done.
Worth mentioning that while Nicky did finish ahead of Stoner, the Australian was last going into turn one after a starting problem. Stoner did look very fast, shame for him. He may even have challenged The Janitor.