Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo took victory in today's Silverstone MotoGP after a last-lap thriller which saw him jam his YZR-M1 up the inside of youngster Marc Marquez in the penultimate corner to cross the line less than a tenth ahead after 20 laps of racing.
Marquez had stalked Lorenzo right from the start with Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa in tow. But Marquez, who dislocated his shoulder in a warm-up crash, left it until three laps from the end before passing Lorenzo for the lead into Brooklands.
A lap later, Lorenzo had seen Marquez was weak on the entrance to Vale and slipped underneath to re-take the lead and try and pull a gap but Marquez was not to be outdone, passing again into Brooklands.
Lorenzo, however, rode around the outside and then then, as they switched to the right of Luffield, he stood Marquez up and took first place to claim five championship back on the 20-year-old.
"I push all the race, I didn't want to lose. I thought when he passed me it was over but he left a little space and it was now or never," said Lorenzo, in parc ferme.
Pedrosa had no answer for his compatriots and finished on the podium but it was another thriller for fourth place as Valentino Rossi and Alvaro Bautista scrapped it out on the last couple of laps.
Bautista had taken fourth from The Doctor but Rossi came back at him as the laps counted down. With three to go, Rossi went under the Gresini Honda man on the brakes into Vale but, on the last lap, he was back past. Rossi was not to be denied, however, and cemented fourth again on the brakes into, appropriately, Vale.
Stefan Bradl gambled on the softer Bridgestone option and it didn't pay off with the German having a lonely race to sixth while Cal Crutchlow's injuries from three big crashes this weekend limited him to seventh place. He didn't get a great start and was pushed wide by Rossi into Copse on the first lap, so lost the tow from the leaders straight away.
Bradley Smith again battled with the Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden. The Italian had claimed eighth but crashed out late on losing the front at Maggott's. Hayden just got past Smith to demote him to ninth. Aleix Espargaro was top CRT man in tenth with Michael Laverty in 19th.
