SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) -Marco Bezzecchi won a chaotic British Grand Prix on Sunday for Aprilia’s first victory of the season in a race that was initially red flagged for an oil spill and riders crashed or retired while in the lead, including Fabio Quartararo.
The victory was a first for Aprilia since the Grand Prix of the Americas last year. LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco came second and Ducati’s Marc Marquez pipped Franco Morbidelli to finish third and extend his lead in the world championship.
Both Alex Marquez and his brother Marc crashed while leading before the race was restarted for an oil spill while polesitter Quartararo took the lead at the second time of asking before being forced to retire due to an issue with his bike.
Bezzecchi’s victory was his first since the 2023 Indian Grand Prix and the Italian also became the 11th different winner at Silverstone in the last 11 races.
“It’s amazing. It has been a really tough time for me in this past month… Aprilia trusted in me and we worked really hard,” Bezzecchi said.
“The team made a wonderful job… I was waiting for a day like this since my last win.”
On the first start, sprint winner Alex had a perfect launch to take the lead from polesitter Quartararo but just as he leaned into turn one, he lost control and crashed, allowing Marc Marquez to take the lead.
Marc also lost control, however, and crashed out of the lead but the Marquez brothers earned a reprieve when the red flag came out for an oil spill in the final sector after Franco Morbidelli and Aleix Espargaro collided and crashed.
RACE RESTARTED
Since three laps had not been completed, all riders were eligible for the restart – where Quartararo took the lead from Francesco Bagnaia and streaked away to a full second’s lead on the opening lap.
Both factory Ducatis suffered on lap three at Copse when they went wide as Marc and Bagnaia dropped to ninth and 10th place.
Bagnaia’s race ended on the following lap when he crashed while Bezzecchi moved up to third behind Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller.
Behind them, Marc Marquez was a man on a mission as he methodically picked his way through the pack and by lap 11, he had moved up to fourth.
The podium became a reality when Yamaha’s dreams of taking the chequered flag went up in smoke as Quartararo signalled he had a problem with his bike and the Frenchman relinquished his lead of nearly five seconds as his ride-height device had failed.
Quartararo stopped by the side of the track, hopped off his bike and sank to his knees with his head on the tarmac as the shell-shocked Yamaha garage looked on.
“When I saw Fabio with a technical problem, I even thought about a victory,” said Zarco, the first Honda rider to take back-to-back podiums since Marc in 2021.
Bezzechi held on to win while Marc Marquez swapped places with VR46 Racing’s Franco Morbidelli several times on the final lap before taking third in a photo finish.
“Today we were lucky, because I made a mistake,” said a fuming Marc, who now leads his brother Alex by 24 points in the world championship.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
