Five things we learned at the MotoGP British GP

MotoGP’s current run of drama continued with Silverstone providing its usual thrilling race, as the British Grand Prix registered its 11th different winner in the past 11 editions.

While Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia celebrated victory, Marc Marquez took full advantage of his luck to stretch his championship lead yet again. Meanwhile, some intense emotions were personified by Fabio Quartararo’s reaction to a technical failure that might be considered avoidable.

Here are five takeaways from the MotoGP British GP weekend.

1. The Marquez brothers get lucky with red flags

Seven race Sundays into the season, it’s hard not to notice that Marc and Alex Marquez have enjoyed large slices of fortune on two of them – both involving red flags.

The first was in America, when the stoppage and subsequent tyre reset meant Marc got away with what was actually a miscalculated attempt to play the rules. While the older brother couldn’t cash in on that occasion, thanks to falling out of a comfortable lead, Alex took advantage – and 20 points.

Now the pair from Cervera owes Lady Luck a note of thanks once again. Dramatically and remarkably, both fell off in the brief first attempt at running the British Grand Prix. They faced retirement and zero points – but then a red flag flew for a completely unrelated reason. A slippery substance had been discovered on the track at Club, where Honda’s Aleix Espargaro had fallen and cannoned into Franco Morbidelli (VR46).

Such an early stoppage means a complete reset and allows crashed riders a second chance on fresh bikes. Marc and Alex took advantage with third and fifth places respectively, scoring decent points for their campaigns after all. Is it fair to the rest that they got a second chance? That rule will continue to be up for debate – but the element of luck they enjoyed certainly isn’t.

Marc was happy to admit this afterwards, saying: “The Marquez family was the luckiest today!”

Somewhat ironically, Marc had to battle for his podium with the third rider to really profit from the red flag reset: Morbidelli. The man on the yellow GP24 would have been another retiree without the stoppage. But, given that he’d been the innocent victim of Espargaro’s crash, and the rough run he’s had since MotoGP returned to Europe, few would begrudge the Roman his share of fortune at Silverstone.

2. Silverstone might be the best MotoGP track of all

Unpredictability seems to be a constant among Silverstone MotoGP races

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Sure, the windswept Northamptonshire track rarely offers the displays of spectator passion seen at Latin-infused venues. But can any circuit on the schedule match its high-quality blend of entertainment and challenge?

Exciting races on the latest iteration of the Silverstone track, in use since the British GP moved over from Donington Park in 2010, have been in evidence on an almost annual basis since. The layout seems immune to the overtaking difficulties that most MotoGP circuits suffer from and almost always produces a high-speed thriller.

But there’s more to it than just entertainment. There’s a lot of evidence that Silverstone presents a particularly difficult challenge for both riders and teams in MotoGP. We’ve now had 11 different winners in 11 years – and one interpretation of that is you can only win here on one of those rare occasions when you get absolutely everything right.

But why is a victory at Silverstone so hard to achieve? It’s an unusually long lap for a start. There are quite simply more corners to learn and nail. Many are connected, too, so an error in one will have ongoing repercussions. A flawless qualifying lap here is a bigger, rarer achievement than elsewhere.

The high-speed corners are a daunting prospect from a riding perspective. Add in Silverstone’s tyre wear factor and a rider’s race management skills are tested to the full. Unlike at many venues, they can’t just settle into a conservative rhythm and trust that nobody will be able to pass. Instead, riders must actually race while looking after the rubber. And on days like Sunday, of which Silverstone offers many, they must also contend with gusts of wind strong enough to catch out the very best in the business.

The folk sitting behind laptops in the pits are no less challenged by Silverstone. The high-speed straights ask much of the engine, of course – but there is also that multitude of quick corners, a couple of fiddly complexes and at least two important braking zones to master. Even without its not infrequent squalls of rain, this is not an easy circuit on which to set up a bike. Sometimes you can land up all at sea – KTM, for example, couldn’t wait to get out of the place after this year’s visit.

Riders know that triumphing at Silverstone doesn’t come easy and doesn’t come often. Maybe that’s another reason why the emotion cut so deep when Quartararo was robbed of victory by a mechanical issue.

Bear in mind how ‘challenging drivers’ circuits’ are coming under threat in Formula 1 because the racing spectacle doesn’t match the challenge. Silverstone’s MotoGP race offers full value to both competitors and those who buy tickets – a perfect combination that must be treasured.

3. This version of Marc Marquez is a dangerous points machine

Marquez has demonstrated he now knows when to pick his fights

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

The dramatic events of the last three MotoGP Sundays have served at least to postpone the dull prospect of Marc Marquez riding off into the distance at every opportunity. Notice that he hasn’t won a grand prix since Qatar in mid-April. Yet he has now edged to a 24-point lead in the world championship.

Is this ringing any bells from 2024? Recall that Jorge Martin only won three grands prix all year, yet still went on to win the world championship. His sprint successes played a large part in that – and you can see a similar pattern emerging for Marquez in 2025.

The factory Ducati man has won six out of seven sprints so far. And, even when his brother and nearest championship challenger, Alex, finally stopped him at Silverstone on Saturday, Marc limited the damage with second place.

Ominously for his rivals, however, there’s more to it than just relentless scoring in sprints. The last two Sunday races have revealed a further ruthless aspect to Marc in terms of gathering points.

In France, he settled for second behind Honda’s Johann Zarco. He could have fallen on that damp afternoon had he pushed to bridge a gap that had opened up purely because of strategic calls. But he recognised that fact and chose not to let his pride cost him 20 points.

In England, he battled back to a podium after getting away with a couple of early errors. Again, he understood that strategy calls – in this case his tyre choice – meant he didn’t have a winning combination. So he made sure to bank those 16 points, once again pulling further ahead of his supposed championship challengers.

After the French GP, Marquez referenced his crash at Jerez in the preceding race as something of a turning point in his approach. He said that memories of this accident had served to rein him in at Le Mans. Those words still echoed as he climbed onto the podium at Silverstone.

While he clearly hasn’t become immune to crashing since Jerez, and definitely had some luck in Britain, Marc took advantage of his fortune. Not by winning, but by getting an appropriate points haul into his stash.

Earlier in the season, Marquez got high on winning and possibly forgot that he was actually in contention for the championship for the first time in years. Indications now are that he has shifted his focus and considerable talents to chasing the bigger prize.

Whether that means he’ll be beatable on more conventional Sundays remains to be seen, but the idea of defeating this version of Marc over a season looks more fanciful than ever.

4. This is the best time of the MotoGP year

Silverstone event is part of a run of iconic venues, including Le Mans

Photo by: Dorna

There is something delicious about the MotoGP springtime calendar. If you want to introduce a new fan to the championship, start them off watching the Spanish GP at Jerez and let them keep watching until the Dutch TT at Assen. Before and after that – with respect to the likes of Argentina, Hungary, Indonesia and Valencia – you might want to get them to switch over to the cricket or the golf.

The thing about this time of year is down to simple ingredients: a string of national grands prix with real history attached. These mostly play out on old-school tracks with personalities. And they’re generally staged in front of large crowds – especially Jerez and Le Mans – cheering on the very real prospect of a home winner. That brings a factor money cannot buy.

This year’s stretch of ‘legacy races’ has underlined the appeal, with a Spaniard (Alex Marquez) winning the Spanish GP and a Frenchman (Zarco) winning the French GP. You didn’t need to be from either of those countries to smile your way through celebrations that were outpourings in every sense of the word.

Granted, Silverstone and Assen don’t have local heroes right now, but they do still have history, prestige and rider challenge on their side. Mugello ticks every single box, of course, including terrific racing and a home manufacturer or two.

It’s such a delightful collection of MotoGP events that it’s almost a shame Aragon has been dumped in the middle of it. No offence to the good people of the Spanish region, but how can a relatively young race named after a local area – the fourth ‘world championship’ race in a single country, for crying out loud! – ever carry the same weight as a legendary one that flies the national flag?

Equally, it might be viewed as a shame that the British GP moves back to August next season. Because Silverstone belongs in exactly this company on the calendar – and last weekend showed that a little ‘spring’ weather does the racing no harm at all.

5. MotoGP may be better off without ride-height devices

Quartararo was left emotional after lost victory chance

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

OK, they’re going to be out of our way when the new rules come along in 2027 anyway. But the sight of Quartararo weeping after a stuck ride-height device snatched away his hard-earned British GP victory bid begged some questions. If we could get rid of them right away – and that’s a big ‘if’ – would we do so?

The topic had already been a discussion point in the build-up to Silverstone. The first corner at Le Mans is a tricky one in terms of disengaging the ride-height devices used at the start, and the particular conditions at this year’s French GP start highlighted what a difference in speed their use (or not) can cause. Riders including Quartararo and Zarco are understood to be keen on an agreement not to use them for the start at Le Mans in 2026.

Following the events of Silverstone, such discussions may now be hotting up among the riders. Could they now be about more circuits than only Le Mans? Could they extend beyond starts?

Quartararo, predictably perhaps, was outspoken on the topic after his disappointment: “If this was Formula 1, they would have banned them in the first season. We are still using them. Everyone has one, so there’s no advantage from them, and we have to wait until 2027 to get rid of them.

“They’re a big advantage, but if we all take them out, I mean… it has to be good. You know you have to brake super hard to unlock the front, or to unlock the rear, and I think Alex Marquez’s crash was a little bit about the front because he wanted to brake super hard with the front.

“So it’s dangerous, but I’m not the one making the regulations. And, you know, we are faster [with it], so we will not take out if the others are using it.”

It will be a fun day in motorsport politics if the competitors can achieve a gentleman’s agreement not to use them – arguably a far easier prospect than getting manufacturers to agree on official rule changes in the short term.

Whether the riders choose to use the devices or not, the technology will likely remain on the bikes for the foreseeable future. And sometimes that technology, as Quartararo discovered, can have a mind of its own – rather defeating the average manufacturer’s notion that it showcases their innovative excellence.

Whichever way things go, it seems reasonable to assume most MotoGP fans wouldn’t lose sleep – or even notice – if these devices disappeared tomorrow.

Could an agreement be struck between teams and riders to ban devices earlier than planned?

Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP