Maverick Vinales raced to his first MotoGP victory at a red-flagged shortened British GP, crossing the line comfortably ahead of Cal Crutchlow.

Pol Espargaro and Loris Baz were involved in a horrific crash on the run into Maggots that caused the race to be red flagged on the opening lap.

The two collided and went across the grass where they were thrown from their bikes. Their momentum carried them back onto the track where they were lucky not to collect any of the riders at the back of the field.

The medics were quickly on hand with Espargaro stretchered away while Baz received significant attention before being taken away in an ambulance.

Race Control red flagged the race with Vinales in the lead, declaring a new 19-lap British MotoGP.

This time around pole-sitter Cal Crutchlow led for a brief stint before Vinales once again came through into P1 with championship leader Marc Marquez also passing the LCR Honda rider.

While Vinales scampered off, Marquez held up the chasing pack with Valentino Rossi chomping on his heels.

The Italian passed Marquez into Stowe and tried to chase down Vinales, who had a 2.5 second advantage.

A speed wobble for Marquez cost him third place as Crutchlow swooped through while Andrea Iannone pulled off the exact same move on the Honda rider a lap later.

Making use of his soft tyres and added grip Iannone made short work of Crutchlow to run in a podium position.

It was, however, a five-way fight for the podium as Rossi, Iannone, Crutchlow, Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were all separated by a mere second.

That became a four-way fight when Iannone crashed out of contention.

While they fought it out, Vinales continued to pull away at the very front as he romped to his first MotoGP win, taking the chequered flag by 4.5 seconds.

Crutchlow raced to second place while Rossi finished third as an off on the penultimate lap cost Marquez a shot at the podium as he was fourth.

Pedrosa was fifth ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro and Jorge Lorenzo.

Stefan Bradl crashed out of the race while Scott Redding crashed twice but remounted to finish.

RESULTS

1 Maverick VIÑALES Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 39'03.559
2 Cal CRUTCHLOW LCR Honda +3.480
3 Valentino ROSSI Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 4.063
4 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 5.992
5 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 6.381
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 12.303
7 Aleix ESPARGARO Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 16.672
8 Jorge LORENZO Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 19.432
9 Danilo PETRUCCI OCTO Pramac Yakhnich 25.618
10 Alvaro BAUTISTA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 32.084
11 Yonny HERNANDEZ Pull & Bear Aspar Team 36.131
12 Eugene LAVERTY Pull & Bear Aspar Team 39.130
13 Alex LOWES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 40.143
14 Hector BARBERA Avintia Racing 41.356
15 Tito RABAT Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS 41.943
16 Jack MILLER Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS 47.610
17 Scott REDDING OCTO Pramac Yakhnich 1'56.177

Not Classified
Andrea IANNONE Ducati Team 6 Laps
Stefan BRADL Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 17 Laps
Not Starting
Loris BAZ Avintia Racing
Pol ESPARGARO Monster Yamaha Tech 3