SILVERSTONE: Valentino Rossi of Italy reclaimed the outright lead at the top of the world championship standings with his fourth victory of the season when he triumphed in the British MotoGP at Silverstone on Sunday.

On a rain-drenched track, Rossi, on a Yamaha, led an all-Italian podium as he finished ahead of Ducati-riding compatriots, Danilo Petrucci, who picked up the best result of his career, and Andrea Dovizioso.

A master of rainy conditions, Rossi — a seven-time world champion — rode a near-perfect race to finish in a time of 46 minutes, 15.617 seconds as his main rivals lost ground in the title race.

The day’s biggest loser was defending world champion Marc Marquez of Spain, who started off in pole position but came a cropper and was unable to complete the race after coming off his bike eight laps from home.

Starting from sixth place on the grid, Rossi drew on all the experience and grit.

With the race delayed by rain, Rossi, who had already shown himself fastest in the warm-up, took just two laps to work his way into the lead and never looked back.

He admitted that Marquez’s misfortune acted as an incentive to relax a little.

“When I saw Marc fall, I slowed down a bit,” he said. “I was just hoping that Petrucci didn’t risk everything to get back on terms.”

Petrucci was 3.01 seconds behind Rossi.

Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo of Spain managed to keep him in his sights in the championship race by finishing fourth after the two had started the day level on points.

Rossi now has 236 points to Lorenzo’s 224 with six races remaining. Spain’s Marquez is 77 points off the lead with his hopes of retaining the title all but gone.

Scott Redding was the top British rider, finishing sixth for the Marc VDS Honda team in a race in which British rider Cal Crutchlow was taken down early by LCR Honda team-mate Jack Miller.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2015

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