Maverick Vinales - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com
Maverick Vinales is the new Moto3 World Championship leader after winning his second consecutive Grand Prix at Silverstone. As has become customary in the new junior class, chaos was the order of the day but Vinales held off Luis Salom and Sandro Cortese to move two points ahead of the German who was beaten to second.
The mayhem started as soon as the red light went out with Alexis Masbou getting into Abbey first before engaging in a fight with Efren Vazquez for the entire opening lap. The beneficiary was Vinales though who outdragged the pair of them into Stowe, bringing Salom through with him.
The RW Racing rider would be Vinales' chief threat throughout the race, taking occasional turns in the lead, but Maverick's greater strength under braking gave him the edge whenever they approached Vale. Unlike Barcelona two weeks ago, Vinales couldn't distance himself from the pack behind him and with ten of the seventeen laps completed, no fewer than eleven riders were still in the leading group.
It was at this point that the pack started to fragment slightly as Louis Rossi, running fourth at the time, made an error through Becketts which backed up the riders following him. The top three of Vinales, Salom and Cortese subsequently broke away as Rossi focussed on defending P4 from Masbou, Vazquez, Danny Kent, Romano Fenati, Arthur Sissis, Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Miguel Oliveira.
After outbraking Vinales into Stowe, Salom led the Grand Prix entering the final lap but Vinales wouldn't be denied, scything past into Abbey. Cortese had kept his cards close to his chest but finally made his move on Salom at Brooklands, giving Vinales enough breathing space to claim victory. Salom still had his eyes on second though and under braking for Vale, the 20 year old made his move stick to deprive Cortese of four crucial championship points, enough to cost him the overall lead.
Behind the top three, home favourite Danny Kent led the high speed game of musical chairs with one lap to go but was shuffled back to seventh in the space of three corners. This was great news for Alexis Masbou who finally found himself in position when the music stopped, beating race-long rival Efren Vazquez by 0.314s. Sixth should've gone to Louis Rossi but the French GP winner crashed with the chequered flag in sight, allowing Danny Kent back into the top six. Seventh went to Romano Fenati with Arthur Sissis and Zulfahmi Khairuddin completing the top ten.
Kent may have enjoyed a slice of luck but good fortune sadly deserted the three other Brits with Danny Webb and Fraser Rogers failing to finish. John McPhee did see the chequered flag but a crash early on left him two laps adrift in 28th.
