by Tracy Hagen

World Champion Jorge Lorenzo scored a much-needed victory at Silverstone to improve his chances at repeating as world champion in a season where Repsol Honda’s rookie sensation, Marc Marquez, has been setting records.

The race – and indeed, the entire day – was fill with drama. Cal Crutchlow crashed in the warm-up, his third of the weekend. While the marshalls were dragging away Crutchlow and his scruffy Yamaha, Marquez came cart-wheeling across the grass, narrowly missing those on the ground. Marquez sustained a dislocated left collarbone. “I thought my weekend was over,” said the 20 year-old in the post-race press conference.

The race started under near perfect conditions, with Lorenzo blasting to the front from the middle of the front row and Marquez converting pole position into second place. Before the pair had reached Turn 1 they had already opened a gap on the field. Valentino Rossi followed the lead pair, chased by Stefan Bradl, Cal Crutchlow, and Dani Pedrosa.

Lorenzo and Marquez roared off over the following laps. Pedrosa took far too long to work his way into third, but once he made in there, on lap four, he set a series of new lap records to catch the leaders by lap eight. There he sat, unable or unwilling to initiate a pass, patiently waiting for the pair in front of him to go off line.

It’s hard to recall any other MotoGP race where the front two riders stayed so close for so long as was the case for the 20 laps at Silverstone. The average interval between Lorenzo and Marquez, including all the intermediate timing and scoring loops, was 0.257 seconds. The largest was 0.566. Lorenzo’s Yamaha team just kept showing him “+0” on the pit board for every lap.

Marquez’s first attempt at taking the lead was with eight laps to go, but all he managed was, at best, to pull even with Lorenzo.

With three laps to go Marquez passed Lorenzo at Brooklands, and the crowd roared. But a half-lap later, at Vale, Lorenzo went past Marquez, on the brakes, the rear wheel a few inches in the air.

It all came down to the final corners on the final lap. At the final left-hand turn Lorenzo held the inside line, hit the apex early, and Marquez swooped through. At the final right-hand turn Marquez slid both wheels, open a space that was enough for Lorenzo to get through and use the curb on the exit. As the pair accelerated their shakey bikes to start-finish Lorenzo got there first, by 0.081 seconds.

It was not the closest MotoGP finish ever, that happened at Estoril in 2006 when Toni Elias beat Valentino Rossi by 0.002 seconds. But it was the closest of the 2013 season to date.

Valentino Rossi picked up yet another fourth-place finish by edging out his usual sparing partner, Alvaro Bautista. Rossi admitted after the race that the team needs to do more work to improve the bike. Bautista, on the other hand, was overjoyed. Go figure.

Stefan Bradl finished sixth, all alone, again; and complaining about a lack of side-grip, again.

Brit Cal Crutchlow, who came to Silverstone hoping to score his first MotoGP win in front of country and crown, was out of contention before the race start by crashing the bike hard, three times over in practice. He finished seventh and said he was basically riding around in the race.

Nicky Hayden finished eighth, ahead of Bradley Smith. As the norm, Hayden was racing his teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, for most of the race, a mile behind the leaders. This round went to Hayden after Dovizioso went sliding off track on his bum with a lap and a half left to go.

With six races left to run, Marquez leads Pedrosa by 30 points and Lorenzo by 39. It’s still Marquez’s championship to lose.

Next race: San Marino, September 13