Zarco Wins In Tricky Conditions At Silverstone

Aug 30, 2015
3 min read

It was yet another dominant victory from the runaway championship leader Johann Zarco as he eased to a fifth win of the season at a damp but drying Silverstone circuit.

The Northamptonshire track was drenched with rain early in the morning and riders endured a tricky warm-up and race itself it wet conditions. All riders opted to start on wet tyres with a small amount of drizzle still falling at Silverstone when the lights went out. Pole sitter and home favourite Sam Lowes got an initial good launch from the front but was soon beaten to Copse by Rabat, Rins and Zarco and by the end of lap one had dropped to ninth place.

Zarco took the lead from rival Tito Rabat down the Hangar Straight on lap two, only to be forced wide by the Spaniard into Club and the championship leader dropped to fifth place. Rins briefly took the lead but Rabat soon regained control once again at The Loop until he ran wide at Brooklands handing the lead back to Rins. Meanwhile, British wildcard Bradley Ray unfortuantely crashed out early on and was unable to continue at his home race.

Florian Alt was the first man to pit for slick tyres very early into the 18 lap race but he was over a lap behind by the time he emerged from the pit lane. His gamble didn't pay off even though the German was the fastest man on the track by several seconds and managed to unlap himself towards the end, Alt was only able to finish 24th.

Back at the front, Zarco was soon through on Rabat for third and Marquez for second and began hunting down Rins who had established a one second lead. On lap six, the Frenchman took the lead from Rins down the Wellington Straight. Almost immediately, Zarco streamed away from the field with fastest lap after fastest lap by almost two seconds each time and built an astonishing eight second lead over Rabat who had also got past Rins.

The track continued to dry as the wet weather tyres gradually wore away and the main rider to suffer was Thomas Luthi who was with the leading pack but slipped down the order to ninth place by the end. Zarco meanwhile controlled the race from the front, Rins was unable to close the gap and it was a matter of who would win the four bike battle for second place between Rins, Rabat, Marquez and Folger. There was a brief glimmer of a challenge for the win as Rins closed the gap to four seconds with just a couple of laps remaining but Zarco responded and managed the gap comfortably to dominate the race and win for the fifth time this season.

Behind the championship leader, Rins finished second and Rabat third. Alex Marquez had to settle for fourth with Jonas Folger fifth. Pole sitter Sam Lowes salvaged sixth place ahead of Anthony West, Sandro Cortese, Thonas Luthi and an impressive Rickard Cardus in tenth. Schrotter, Krummenacher, Aegerter, Nakagami and Pons completed the points scorers.

With the win, Zarco extended his championship advantage to 85 points over Alex Rins with Tito Rabat a further three points behind. There are just six races remaining and time is running out for anyone to deny Zarco the Moto2 crown in 2015.

Moto2 Race Result Top 10:

WINNER - Johann ZARCO, 42m53.674s

2ND - Alex RINS, +3.360s

3RD - Tito RABAT, +5.527s

4th - Alex MARQUEZ, +6.489s

5th - Jonas FOLGER, +8.228s

6th - Sam LOWES, +28.261s

7th - Anthony WEST, +33.902s

8th - Sandro CORTESE, +33.939s

9th - Thomas LUTHI, +34.889s

10th - Ricard CARDUS, +35.084s.

Full Moto2 British Grand Prix Race Result available here: