Misano was the theater of a historic race today. Valentino Rossi took the victory in front of all his Italian fans. The Italian took advantage of Marc Marquez’s fall, 17 laps from the finish, which condemned him to the 15th place after he had to make a come back from the 20th position. Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa complete the podium.
The race started quietly, all went well especially for Lorenzo who maintained his position in front of Rossi, Marquez, Iannone and Dovizioso. In the first laps, Márquez and Rossi fought each other for a while and the Italian ultimately took the advantage. A few minutes later, both overtook Lorenzo, whose different strategy, with hard tyres in the front, proved not too beneficial. Behind Pedrosa recoveredfrom a bad outing and beat Pol Espargaró and both Ducati drivers, Dovizioso and Iannone.
Once the race was stabilized, Rossi and Márquez were fast ahead of the pack, leaving behind Lorenzo whose rhythm was really inferior. Yet, 17 laps from the finish, the panorama of the race changed drastically. Marquez, who was trying to catch up on the Italian, closed the direction too hard in turn 4 and fell where the drivers are around 95km/h. Both the driver and the bike fell but, thanks to the stewards, he was able to start again from the 20th position, 40 seconds behind Barberà, who was the closest.
After the incident, that no one expected, Rossi kept a great pace in front of the pack, with Lorenzo staying two seconds and a half behind. As for Pedrosa he captured everyone’s attention by trying to keep off Dovizioso’s assault, who surprisingly finished 4th, which is a great result for the Italian team. The race was then quite stabilized for a while, and the positions did not change much.
With only five laps before the end, Márquez reached the last drivers and went from the 20th to the 16 th position in only four laps. At the front, the positions did not shift and Rossi won an historic race in San Marino, in front of thousands of tifosis. Lorenzo and Pedrosa completed the podium ahead of the two Ducatis who managed to maintain a rhythm that was superior to what they had shown before. Behind, Aleix Espargaró gave one point to Márquez after he fell in front of him. The points are closed up by Pol Espargaró in 6th, followed by Smith, Bautista, Crutchlow, Hernandez, Abraham, Aoyama, Redding i De Angelis en 14th position.
After this amazing race in Misano, the drivers are on the road towards Aragón and the Motorland racetrack, and its harsh curves where they will race between the 26th and 28th September.