Fernandez flawless as Aprilia sweeps Silverstone

Raul Fernandez didn't so much win the British Grand Prix as remove himself from it.

While everyone else spent 20 laps worrying about tyres, injuries, championship points and each other, the Trackhouse Aprilia rider disappeared up the road and stayed there, taking a superb second MotoGP victory on his 150th Grand Prix start.

Behind him, Jorge Martin finished second and Marco Bezzecchi somehow dragged his battered body to third to complete a second Aprilia podium lockout in as many days.

Fernandez's afternoon was made slightly easier at the first corner when both Martin and Ai Ogura struggled to disengage their rear ride-height devices, sending sparks from underneath the RS-GPs and costing them places.

Fernandez required no second invitation.

By the end of the opening lap he was already more than a second clear. After two it was nearly two. Before long the rest of the field seemed to be participating in an entirely separate event.

It was an imperious performance.

The expectation before the race had been that tyre management would decide everything. Ducati were sufficiently concerned by Saturday's alarming rear-grip problems that Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez all reverted to an older rear aero package for Sunday.

It didn't cure them.

Bagnaia endured another miserable afternoon before crashing out, while Marc gradually slipped backwards as his grip disappeared, eventually finishing seventh. Alex fared considerably better and briefly looked capable of spoiling Aprilia's party before a sizeable moment at Abbey cost him ground.

Martin, meanwhile, recovered quickly from his ride-height problem.

Once past Bezzecchi he began eating into Fernandez's advantage, but by then the horse had not only bolted, it was somewhere near Milton Keynes.

Fernandez had everything under control.

Martin settled for second and a very useful championship afternoon after Ogura suffered his first major mistake of an otherwise remarkably consistent season, crashing out at Vale.

And then there was Bezzecchi.

A week ago, riding a MotoGP bike at Silverstone looked an ambitious enough proposition after the injuries he sustained at the Sachsenring. By Sunday afternoon he was defending a podium from Alex Marquez.

For lap after lap, Marquez stalked him.

And somehow Bez got faster.

With two laps remaining, after nearly an entire Grand Prix spent riding through pain, Bezzecchi produced his fastest lap of the race.

Quite how is probably a matter best left to medical science.

Marquez kept coming, but Bezzecchi refused to give him an opening. He crossed the line third, climbed off the bike and looked like a man who had used absolutely everything he had available.

His parc fermé interview didn't last long.

"It's difficult to speak."

That was about all he had left.

The result moves Bezzecchi into second in the World Championship, 31 points behind Martin. Just as importantly, he now has nearly three weeks without a race before Aragon; time his collarbone, knee and probably most of the rest of him will be very grateful for.

Fernandez, though, deserves the final word.

Twenty four hours after throwing away a potential result in the Sprint, he responded with arguably the most complete ride of his MotoGP career. From the moment he arrived at Abbey on lap one, nobody seriously threatened him.

He crossed the line 2.538 seconds ahead of Martin, with Bezzecchi another 0.855 behind, becoming the 12th different winner of the last 12 British Grands Prix and giving Aprilia its second consecutive Silverstone victory.

Pole position. Sprint victory. Sprint podium lockout. Grand Prix podium lockout.

By Sunday afternoon, there wasn't much left at Silverstone that didn't belong to Aprilia.