Back up front, Quartararo had a 0.8 lead as Viñales slipped to 1.5 seconds back on Lap 6. Quartararo’s advantage wouldn’t stay above half a second for long though, the Repsol Honda reeled the Petronas Yamaha in as the reigning World Champion and MotoGP™ rookie faced off. Unexpectedly, Viñales was now out of range. The gap to Marquez and Quartararo was nearly three seconds – what was going on for one of the weekend’s leading contenders?

In the battle for sixth, Rins was given a long lap penalty shortly after finally dispatching Espargaro’s KTM. But then, it didn’t matter for the Silverstone winner. The Suzuki man was down at Turn 4, while further up the road, Rossi was hitched onto the back of compatriot Morbidelli. At the front, Quartararo was faultless. There was no sign of the 20-year-old buckling under the pressure from a seven-time Champion as the gap between the two remained at 0.2.

The laps ticked by and still there was no change. Marquez was fierce on the brakes coming into Turn 10, but ‘El Diablo’ was a demon at picking the bike up onto the straight. There was simply nothing splitting Quartararo and Marquez, with Viñales at this point now closing the gap ever so slightly to the leaders. Surely it was too late for the Spaniard? Into the final 10 laps, still nothing. No hint of an overtake from Marquez, no signs of a mistake from Quartararo. Lap after lap, the consistency was frightening as Viñales got the gap down to two seconds. There was a sense of inevitability in the air as we headed onto the final five laps, but we’d have to wait until the last lap before Marquez pounced.

Firing it onto the start/finish straight, Marquez had the run on Quartararo and led into Turn 1. Quartararo got a good run out of Turn 2 and Turn 3 though as the rookie bit straight back. Into Turn 4 they went, Quartararo was back at the summit but the back straight and Turn 8 provided a golden passing opportunity. Marquez, late on the brakes, smoke coming off his boot, somehow got it stopped into the left-hander – changing of the guard once more. Now it was Marquez’ to lose. No way through for Quartararo at Turn 10, but the Yamaha got a good run down through Turn 11 and 12. The Frenchman was right behind Marquez as the tight left of Turn 14 approached. Marquez went defensive and was slow mid-corner. Quartararo tried to cut back but there was no way through, the Yamaha almost touching the rear wheel of Marquez. Subsequently, Quartararo had to sit up, which meant it was game over. Marquez returned to winning ways after two consecutive P2s to win on enemy territory, overtaking Mike Hailwood’s Grand Prix win record in the process – 77 now his tally.