The Duel In The Sun

Dorna MotoGP World Championship

- Jack Firman

I signed off last month by suggesting that the second half of the season was set to be a belter. Well, it seems that for once I might just be proven right.

Where Silverstone 2018 was an unmitigated disaster of a GP weekend, 2019 was an instant classic. The duel in the sun between the unflappable mighty Marc Marquez and one of the sport's young pretenders to his crown, Alex Rins, will live long in the memory. In many ways, the finale was like a rerun of the 1979 duel between Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts – only this time it was the Suzuki in the hands of Rins that claimed the victory where Sheene's Suzuki had missed out at the very same corner.

A huge amount of credit has to go to Silverstone supremo Stuart Pringle. The events of 2018 were largely out of his control, but he confronted the situation, the understandable anger from the paying punters and a barrage of criticism (some well justified) from all quarters head on. Refunds were processed swiftly and efficiently, and aside from all of the ongoing legal wranglings, he and his team set about employing the best in the business to rectify the situation, resurface the track and salvage the situation, and in the process secure the future of our home GP.