Moto2 Misano: Home win for Marini
Luca Marini survived the late challenge from his teammate Marco Bezzecchi to claim victory in the Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix at Misano.
The Sky Racing Team VR46 rider found himself on pole position after Sam Lowes was moved to his pit lane penalty start and Remy Gardner was declared unfit following his warm-up highside which left him with fractures to his left foot and right hand.
The local man then managed his lead to perfection until he ran wide pulled Bezzecchi, who had been sat patiently behond, back into contention.
The pair then swapped the lead over an exciting final few laps, with each piling on the pressure and causing each other to trip up and make mistakes, bringing fellow Italian Enea Bastianini back into contention.
Marini then rallied and got back into his rhythm to win by 0.799s by the chequered flag.
Bezzecchi had to hold off a rapidly catching Bastianini to keep second. The Italtrans rider had to settle for third but was happy to finish the race - he ran wide and completed a Marc Marquez style save as he used his elbow and knee sliders to push himself back upright.
Marini’s championship tally is now 112 points with Bastianini still second to him now by 17. Jorge Martin drops to fourth as he missed the race weekend after testing positive for Covid-19.
Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta Racing) was over a second adrift of the all Kalex podium on his way to fourth.
Augusto Fernandez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) lead the battle for fifth over the line after pulling away from Tom Luthi and Fabio Di Giannantonio in the closing stages.
Luthi took the chequered flag sixth for Liqui Moly Intact GP, keeping ‘Diggia’ at bay - he was the best of the Speed Up riders.
Sam Lowes put in an amazing performance after serving his pit lane penalty for the crash he caused in Styria. The British rider was incident-free as he cleanly completed pass after pass on the second Marc VDS entry after not even being in sight of the back of the pack on the first lap to climb to an impressive eighth.
Aron Canet was still the top rookie after an eventful weekend. The Aspar rider was on pole last time out in Styria but crashed out in the race. Further falls in practice saw him more cautious - but he seemed back in his groove after topping warm-up. That allowed him to turn his 26th on the grid into a ninth place finish.
Joe Roberts also clawed back places late on to complete the top ten for Tennor American Racing.
Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) followed suit and moved into eleventh, with Robert’s teammate Marcos Ramirez holding on to twelfth.
Lorenzo Dalla Porta made advances as he struggles to adapt to Moto2. The Italtrans rider recorded his first points finish of the season in 13th.
The remaining points went to veteran Simone Corsi in 14th for MV Agusta Forward, the best finisher for the manufacturer, and Nicolo Bulega (Federal Oil Gresini) in 15th. Jake Dixon just missed out in 16th.
Hector Garzo suffered an early exit from the points places, with Jorge Navarro the next to fall with ten laps completed. Andi Farid Izdihar crashed out at turn one with nine laps remaining.
Marcel Schrotter had been sitting in fourth before losing the front at turn 13 with six laps left to run.
Jesko Raffin, Edgar Pons, Hafizh Syahrin and former championship leader Tetsuta Nagashima all also failed to go the distance.
