The race was brought to an abrupt halt on the opening lap of the original start, as Pol Espargaro and Loris Baz were both launched from their bikes in terrifying fashion at Maggotts.
Contact between Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci triggered the accident, from which Espargaro emerged more or less unscathed – albeit after being taken from the track by stretcher.
Baz, meanwhile, received immediate attention from the medics trackside, before being reported conscious and taken by ambulance to the medical center for further evaluation.
The restarted race was reduced in distance by a lap to 19, with Vinales moving from his grid slot of third to take an immediate lead with passes on Valentino Rossi at Stowe and poleman Cal Crutchlow at Abbey.
From there, Vinales gradually extended his advantage as his rivals became embroiled in a frenetic scrap for position behind that allowed the Suzuki rider to escape his pursuers and win by a margin of 3,480 seconds.
It marks Vinales’ first victory in the premier class and Suzuki’s first since Chris Vermuelen’s wet Le Mans triumph in 2007. In the dry, it was the Japanese marque’s first win since Sete Gibernau at Valencia in 2001.
Crutchlow and Rossi complete podium after epic battles
Behind, Marc Marquez moved into the head of a train of riders, with Crutchlow, Rossi, Andrea Iannone and Dani Pedrosa all following in hot pursuit.
Some laps later, Rossi carved his way through to second, keeping hold of the runner-up spot at the half-distance mark, but was powerless to fend of a charging Iannone on the 12th lap.
The Ducati rider’s run ended however with a crash at Luffield, promoting Crutchlow – who had just dispatched Rossi – into second place, where the LCR Honda one would stay until the closing laps.
Marquez and Rossi, meanwhile, were engaged in an exhilarating dice for third, which had shades of their 2015 Sepang clash as both were on the edge for a number of laps.
The battle was defused briefly when Marquez cut the track at Becketts on the 15th lap, after which he passed Rossi at The Loop and quickly caught up to the back of Crutchlow.
However, the championship leader was visibly struggling with rear tire wear, and ended up running wide at Stowe on the penultimate lap as he tried to stave off another assault by Crutchlow.
That dropped him back to fifth, giving Crutchlow and Rossi untroubled runs to the checked flag for second and third, although Marquez picked off teammate Dani Pedrosa on the last lap to reclaim fourth.
Behind, Andrea Dovizioso was sixth, ahead of Aleix Espargaro and an off-colour Jorge Lorenzo. Petrucci and Alvaro Bautista completed the top 10.
The sole surviving Tech 3 Yamaha of Alex Lowes finished his first MotoGP race 13th, behind the Aspar pair of Yonny Hernandez and Eugene Laverty.
Besides Iannone, the only other crashers after the restart were Stefan Bradl, who went down early on at Maggotts, and Scott Redding, who crashed out twice but continued to finish 17th.
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