Bastianini seals weekend double at Silverstone

Ducati Lenovo’s Enea Bastianini won the British Grand Prix to seal an impressive weekend double at Silverstone as Jorge Martin took the lead in the title race.

The Italian edged out Prima Pramac’s championship leader Martin, who finished second on Sunday, while defending champion Francesco Bagnaia was third.

Italy’s Bagnaia started strongly and surpassed pole-sitter Aleix Espargaro on the opening lap, before Spain’s Martin took control and moved to the front.

Martin was cruising before making a costly mistake in the closing stages as Saturday’s sprint winner Bastianini took advantage.

“It has been a very difficult race because I made some mistakes in the start and was in fourth place, but after I was confident,” said Bastianini.

“I closed the gap to Aleix and to [Bagnaia]. The last four to five laps Jorge pushed a lot and it was too difficult to [keep] the gap to him.”

Martin has moved above Bagnaia to lead the championship by three points, while Bastianini remains third.

“I knew Enea was a bit stronger at the end of the race,” Martin said. “The pace was outstanding as always, I think we are reaching a level that is crazy and we are always on the limit.

“And as soon as I saw Enea was catching, I tried to keep it constant and to manage a bit for the end, but he was much stronger today. Congrats to Ducati and Enea because he was on another level.

“We take back the [championship] lead, so I’m really happy with this and we move on to Austria.”