MARC Marquez wins dramatic MotoGP race in Misano as British riders Bradley Smith and Scott Redding take podium positions whilst Lorenzo crashes out.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez took his fourth win of the season at the Misano MotoGP race in difficult weather conditions. The Spaniard took his 23rd MotoGP victory after gambling in a flag-to-flag race which saw most riders pit twice due to the ever changing conditions.
Rain started to fall as the riders set off on their Warm Up lap. The entire field, except for Ducati’s Michele Pirro who had an issue, started on slick tyres.
Throughout the opening lap there were small battles, but the main battle was when the white flags were flown on lap two. The white flag allows riders to pit and swap to their second bike with a wet setup if conditions worsened.
Lorenzo took a lead with Marquez in close contention as they both broke away from Italian Valentino Rossi. The rained continued to fall with some riders pushing hard whilst others backed off the throttle. By lap six the pace had dropped by nearly six seconds and most riders were now taking no risks except for Scott Redding.
Redding, riding for the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Racing Team was battling for fourth, but on the seventh lap the Brit ran on and dropped his Honda. Redding ran back to his bike, rode straight into the pits changed to his second bike and got straight back out on track.
It was at this point that the majority of the MotoGP field had also opted to change to their wet bike whilst the two Movistar Yamaha riders Lorenzo and Rossi alongside Marc Marquez continued to circulate.
The top three eventually pitted all together which included pit lane drama as Marquez and Lorenzo almost collided, but the Yamaha rider signaled to Marquez to ‘stay calm’.
The three re-joined at the same time and it was clear that Lorenzo and Marquez had a quicker pace than Rossi as he then found himself 2.5 seconds behind. Lorenzo found himself ahead of Marquez at Turn 8 when the Honda rider ran wide on the tenth lap.
All riders were finding it difficult to tell which part of the track was wet and which part was dry as new track surface at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is dark. As the track dried, Rossi flew. The Italian gained over a second a lap on the two leaders despite his front wet tyre rapidly deteriorating.
Forward Racing’s Loris Baz was one of the first riders to jump back onto slicks and soon the Open rider found himself inside the top ten as the rest of the field opted to change back.
Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith struggled outside the points having remained on slicks throughout the entire race. The Brit continued to follow his instincts to risk it after missing the opportunity to change with the rest of the pack.
On lap 18, Marquez decided to swap back to slicks. Lorenzo joined Marquez a lap later whilst Rossi continued on wet tyres until there were seven laps to go. Disaster then struck for Lorenzo as he the crashed out heavily at Turn 15. The Spaniard suffered a small contusion to his right hand, but escaped with only bruising.
Marquez had built a large advantage before pitting and therefore managed to maintain his lead, and with Lorenzo crashing out he had room to breathe at the front. Smith’s gamble to stay out paid of as he took second thanks to Lorenzo’s crash which also promoted Baz to third.
Redding was still wanting to make up for crashing out earlier on. After changing back to slick tyres sooner than the majority of the field, Redding found himself in third position.
This was the first time since 1979 that two British riders finished on the podium in the premier class, the last being Barry Sheen and Tom Herron.
Aside from Lorenzo’s crash, Alex de Angelis and Yonny Hernandez clashed together at Turn 6 and with only two laps to go, Pol Espargaro crashed out – his fourth DNF of the year.
Race results:
1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team 48:23.819
2. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 48:31.107 (+7.288)
3. Scott Redding GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS 48:42.612 (+18.793)
4. Loris Baz FRA Forward Racing 48:50.246 (+26.427)
5. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 48:57.015 (+33.196)
6. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing 48:58.906 (+35.087)
7. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team 49:00.346 (+36.527)
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team 49:01.253 (+37.424)
9. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 49:03.335 (+39.516)
10. Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar 49:03.511 (+39.692)
11. Cal Crutchlow GBR LCR Honda 49:05.814 (+41.995)
12. Jack Miller AUS LCR Honda 49:09.894 (+46.075)
13. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing 49:12.200 (+48.381)
14. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar 49:16.144 (+52.325)
15. Alvaro Bautista ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini 49:17.167 (+53.348)
16. Stefan Bradl GER Factory Aprilia Gresini 49:22.647 (+58.828)
17. Nicky Hayden USA Aspar MotoGP Team 49:26.468 (+1:02.649)
18. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing 49:28.587 (+1:04.768)
19. Eugene Laverty IRL Aspar MotoGP Team 49:29.496 (+1:05.677)
20. Claudio Corti ITA Forward Racing +1 lap
21. Karel Abraham CZE AB Motoracing +1 lap
DNF. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3
DNF. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
DNF. Yonny Hernandez COL Octo Pramac Racing
DNF. Alex De Angelis RSM E-Motion IodaRacing
DNF. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Team
