2021 FIM MotoGP World Championship
Round 12 – Silverstone

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MotoGP returns to Silverstone this weekend after a one-year hiatus due to Covid, revisiting one of the fastest and longest (5.9 km) venues on the calendar. Two of the current three category leaders have zero race laps at the British circuit under their belt, making it anyone’s game. Due to the pandemic the 2020 race was cancelled, so this will be only the second visit to the circuit with its new asphalt since it was completely resurfaced in 2019, and it will be held in front of a very welcome full house of spectators following the recent easing of Covid restrictions in England. All MotoGP records were set in 2019 and currently Marc Marquez holds both the race lap record of 1m59.936 and the all-time lap record of 1m58.168. However, the top speed record of 333.3 km/h was set by Cal Crutchlow.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) is the rider for whom the italics on zero racing laps apply. The Championship leader does have experience at the track on a MotoGP bike and qualified fourth in 2019, he just didn’t make it further than the exit of Turn 1 after being unsettled by a rider ahead and going down. Could that prove crucial? The track has often been good turf for Yamaha though, especially in the hands of Jorge Lorenzo, so that should be a firm tick in the pro column.

Fabio Quartararo

“I‘m starting the British GP with a very positive mood. We extended our championship lead after Spielberg, and Silverstone is a circuit that I really love. We made a big step there in 2019 in terms of performance. I think that this race will be a good one if the conditions are good. If it rains, we’ll have to see, but in any case, we will do our best. My goal is to fight for the victory, firstly because this is one my favourite tracks and secondly because it‘s an important GP for the team.”

Speaking of Yamaha, there will be some different faces in the Iwata stable at Silverstone. Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) remains, steadfastly on the search for another solid finish as he races at Silverstone for the final time in MotoGP.

Valentino Rossi

“I really like Silverstone; it’s a great track and is one of my favourites. It’s long and has everything there: fast parts, medium ones and it’s very technical in places. Usually we are quite strong there, so hopefully this will be the case again this year, and I hope that we have good weather this weekend. I think the weather forecast is okay at the moment but you have to be ready for everything there – it can start dry and end wet, or only be wet in some places. I’m really looking forward to being back there this weekend.”

Joining Quartararo in the Monster Energy Yamaha garage is now Cal Crutchlow as he moves from filling in for Franco Morbidelli to filling in for Maverick Viñales.

Cal Crutchlow

“I am happy to be riding for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP at the British Grand Prix. It was nice to get back to riding in Austria after a long time off, so I am now looking forward to racing for the Factory Team and working with my Test Team Crew Chief Silvano Galbusera and all of the team members, that I know well.”

That means that there’s a new face joining the ranks to replace Morbidelli: Jake Dixon. The Moto2 rider takes on the premier class for the first time this weekend, and on home turf no less. He has experience on bigger capacity machinery from his days in BSB, but MotoGP is a whole new challenge – and what a track to take on.

Jake Dixon

“This weekend will be difficult, jumping on the big bike for the first time at my home GP, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s always exciting to be racing at home, but this year it’s going to be extra special. The home support is always amazing there, I love the track and I think it’s going to be a great experience. To have a big crowd there and the knowledge of the circuit is really going to help me this weekend, although I’m obviously not looking for any particular result. I’m just going to go out and enjoy it!”

But back to the top three, and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) as the aforementioned “outside the top ten as a rookie”. After his storming of the podium late on in Austria though, that is nevertheless some valuable experience to add to his current form heading into the weekend. And Silverstone has been painted Ducati red before. On the hunt for that maiden win, Bagnaia is now the closest challenger to Quartararo but by literally nothing in terms of points, so can he sustain his momentum and stay ahead, or even cut that gap?

Francesco Bagnaia

“In the last race at the Red Bull Ring, in Austria, we came very close to victory once again, and this confirms that we are working well. Now we are second in the Championship, and it is crucial to continue to be consistent to get as close as possible to the top of the standings. Silverstone is a less favourable track for the characteristics of our bike than Zeltweg, but if we can concentrate from Friday’s free practice onwards, we can be competitive. As always, here in England, the weather will play an important role, so we have to be ready to adapt to any track conditions“.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing) will be keen to stop that happening and take back his previous position as top Ducati in the standings. As it is, he’s now second Ducati and fourth overall. He also has the added challenge of not having ridden Silverstone on Borgo Panigale machinery before.

Rookie team-mate Jorge Martin, by definition, is the same, but the number 89 will arrive with a bounce in his step after a win and a podium across two stunning weekends at the Red Bull Ring. And what about Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team)? The Australian had a more muted double header in Austria but he’s the rider in the top five with the most experience of the track on his current machinery, or similar.

Jack Miller

“The last two races in Austria didn’t exactly go as we hoped, so we come to Silverstone determined to move on and get a good result. In 2019, in the last GP held here, I had managed to get a front-row start and felt I could do well in the race, but unfortunately, a problem did not allow me to do so. In England, the weather is always uncertain, so we’ll have to work hard from the first sessions to be ready for Sunday’s race under any circumstances.”

Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar), meanwhile, is the rider in the top three heading into a complete unknown. It seems a long time ago now to rewind back to before he was the reigning Champion, but as a rookie in 2019 his season was temporarily derailed by a crash in testing at Brno – and he missed the British GP. So he’s not done a single MotoGP session at the venue, but in some good news, the Suzuki most definitely has.

Joan Mir

“Every race this year is tougher because everybody is so competitive, the bikes are pretty equally matched, so it means that we are fighting harder to reach our goals. But as we’ve shown, even at tracks which don’t really suit our bike, like Austria, we’ve achieved good things. Silverstone will be strange and interesting for me because I’ve never ridden here on a MotoGP bike, so it’s been a long time since I’ve attacked the track – I’ll need to keep practicing on the PlayStation!”

The 2019 British GP was an instant classic. There have been a few of those in the last few years, haven’t there? But it truly was, with Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) just coming out on top against Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). Rins has therefore shown the recent strength of the Hamamatsu machine around the venue, even when pitted against the man who took pole by four tenths with a new all-time lap record of a 1:58.168, when not too long ago the question was who would break the two-minute barrier.

Suzuki also won the 2016 event with Maverick Viñales. So the bike has form, can Mir and Rins add more? The reigning Champion will hope so as he stares down the chance to leapfrog Bagnaia, and Rins will too as he goes through a difficult season in 2021 so far.

Alex Rins

“I hope I can get a really good result here, but it will be difficult because all the bikes are very close on performance. But anyway I feel that our GSX-RR suits this track well and I really like riding here, so hopefully that will give us a little advantage. The memories from here in 2019 are still so fresh in my mind; it was incredible to win like that after a battle with Marc, and the celebrations with my team were fantastic. My crew have been working really hard this year and I would like to give them another good reason to celebrate!”

So what about Marc Marquez? The eight-time World Champion was the obvious favourite heading into Silverstone the last time we did, but since then he’s been through the biggest upheaval in his career. In Austria, however, he looked like he’d made another step forward in his recovery and his form, able to dice it out at the front for longer than we’ve seen – Germany aside – so far in 2021.

Marquez led the way into pitlane late on at the Red Bull Ring, thinking the rest would follow as he gambled to try and win his second race of the season. And they all did, except one… but more on him later. Marc Marquez will have taken heart from another bit of progress though, so what can he do at Silverstone? And can fellow Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu), who impressed in Styria, get back in the mix along with team-mate Alex Marquez (LCR Honda Castrol) and Marc Marquez’ team-mate Pol Espargaro?

Marc Marquez

“It will be great to see the British fans again after a year away. Racing in Austria with fans in the stands was enjoyable, so I am looking forward to doing it again in England! Our position between the races has not changed, this weekend is again all about working to improve and seeing what’s possible on Sunday. Last race we had the speed and were able to fight, but Silverstone is a very different circuit, and many can be strong there.”

Pol Espargaro

“Let’s see what this weekend in Silverstone can bring us. It’s a long circuit, which is quite different to where we just were. First, we need to understand how the bike is working there and then make our plan for the weekend but the goal is to improve and try to fix the problems we had in Austria. I enjoyed racing in front of fans again last time out, so it’s good news we will do it again this weekend.”

And now, back to the headline stealer in Austria: Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and another of those instant classics. The South African will arrive on the crest of a wave, and KTM in the midst of what’s become another frontrunning season, but Silverstone is a very different challenge. How will the Austrian factory measure up? The last time MotoGP raced there, a top ten was a realistic target.

Now, they expect far more. So will the step they made from 2019 to 2020 be apparent immediately? Or will less data mean more time needed out the box for both Binder and teammate Miguel Oliveira, who is likewise a race winner this season and will hopefully also be better recovered from his Styrian GP practice crash?

Tech3 KTM Factory Racing’s Danilo Petrucci has fond memories in Great Britain after he clinched his first premier class podium there in 2015. After he scored four points last time out in Austria, the Italian aims to continue to progress aboard his KTM RC16.

Danilo Petrucci

“Silverstone is a quite unique track compared to the others. It’s really nice, I always had good memories there, I scored my very first MotoGP podium there in wet conditions. For us now it’s another opportunity to hopefully get some points and good results overall. I definitely can’t wait to be back on my KTM RC16 this weekend!”

With his best ever MotoGP result to date reached at the Red Bull Ring a bit over one week ago, Iker Lecuona arrives in Silverstone highly motivated as well. The Spanish youngster, who saw the flag in sixth in Spielberg, is impatient to be riding his KTM RC16 for the first time at the British track.

Iker Lecuona

“For me it will be the first time in Silverstone with the MotoGP bike, so the target is to learn the track fast and continue to improve. During the last races, I made some good steps forward and felt really good with the bike. We have been fighting for a top 10 result again last time out, so it’s going to be the goal for this weekend as well.”

Hervé Poncharal – Tech3 KTM Team Manager

“It’s a great feeling for the MotoGP paddock to be back in Silverstone, where we haven’t been racing for almost two years. It’s quite difficult to give a prediction of how good we might be there because last time we have been at this place, the bike has been very different to what we have now and Miguel was doing a quite strong race, but he was t-boned by another KTM, which was the end of his 2019 season. So hopefully things will be better, safer and the overall result will be more positive than the one we had in 2019. Last time out, our two riders ended up well inside the points in Austria and I hope this has given a great boost to Danilo’s and Iker’s moral. We really hope both of them will carry on pushing and showing their potential as well as the potential of the KTM RC16. Silverstone is a beautiful circuit, where we always see great racing. It has very fast corners and the last section of the track is always crazy to watch and is always giving the possibility for the final positions in the last lap and especially in this final sector. The British fans are always very enthusiastic and I’m pretty sure they will have missed MotoGP a lot. Therefore, I think everybody is happy to return to Silverstone. Although it’s now out of Europe, which for me is a great shame. Nevertheless, hopefully it will be a great weekend of sport, a great weekend of MotoGP and a great weekend for Tech3 KTM Factory Racing.”

Aprilia likewise arrive with a little less recent data given the gap in events at Silverstone, but the Noale factory also have an RS-GP that was given a complete overhaul. Can they continue to hit the ground running and get in that fight? Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) was incredibly close to getting that podium last time out before losing ground in the final stages, so the goal will remain that top five finish aka a best in the MotoGP era.

2021 MotoGP Standings

2021 British Grand Prix – Silverstone Schedule

Source: MCNews.com.au