DANNY KENT re-wrote the British Grand Prix history books with a masterclass of a victory in the rain-soaked Moto3™ world championship race at Silverstone this afternoon.

The 21-year-old from Tetbury is the first British racer to win the lightweight race at his home grand prix.

More importantly Kent, after his sixth win of the season, opened up a 70-point lead in the world series after his main rival Enea Bastianini crashed out with two laps to go, in an incident-packed race that saw 19 riders fall.

In front of 73,000 delighted home fans, Leopard Racing’s Kent claimed his eighth GP career victory in dominant fashion.

The Moto3™ race saw the worse weather of the day at Silverstone, but even this could not stop runaway championship leader Kent. Starting from third on the grid, the British rider took over the lead with 13 laps to go after Isaac Viñales crashed out and never looked back.

Once he had established a ten-second lead, he managed the gap perfectly as the weather worsened.

With such a big lead, it became a test of concentration for Kent, but he passed with flying colours to cross the line 8.492 seconds ahead of Jakub Kornfeil, who secured his first ever Moto3™ podium.

Niccolo Antonelli (+13.819s), on the Ongetta-Rivacold Honda, completed the podium.

Kent said: “The conditions were difficult all race long but towards the end it got worse, so you needed to ride carefully. There was definitely no time to take it easy.

"I tried to stay calm as Isaac pulled away and after I took the lead I had to remain focussed all the way to the line. I was sliding a lot but I managed to remain seated.

"Of course, it’s an amazing feeling to win your home round of the world championship in front of this cheering crowd, but also because my whole family is there and so many friends came to see me winning.

"The atmosphere is amazing and it’s the dream of every rider to win their home grand prix.

"The championship is still open even though we won 25 points today, but on the other side we lost 21 points during the last two races. So you can win points as fast you can lose them. We just need to keep working hard until the very last race of the series.”