Dovizioso masters Misano for third win of the year
Full MotoGP race results from Misano
Andrea Dovizioso has dominated at Misano to claim his third victory of the season ahead of MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez who saw Jorge Lorenzo crash out ahead of him on the penultimate lap.
The Ducati rider muscled his way past Lorenzo on the sixth lap before notching up an impressive race pace which his team-mate and Marquez on the Repsol Honda struggled to follow.
Full MotoGP race results from Misano
Andrea Dovizioso has dominated at Misano to claim his third victory of the season ahead of MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez who saw Jorge Lorenzo crash out ahead of him on the penultimate lap.
The Ducati rider muscled his way past Lorenzo on the sixth lap before notching up an impressive race pace which his team-mate and Marquez on the Repsol Honda struggled to follow.
Lorenzo and Marquez appeared equally matched and exchanged passes during the middle third of the race which enabled Dovizioso to escape up the road to build a time gap.
While Lorenzo looked to have kept Marquez in check in the closing stages, the Ducati rider’s podium bid was ended on the penultimate lap with a low side off at Turn 8. With Marquez promoted up to second place, LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow secured his first podium since winning in Argentina.
Lorenzo was able to remount but missed out on any points finishing down in 17th place.
Behind the podium trio Alex Rins held off Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales to take his best result since Assen with fourth place for Suzuki.
Home crowd favourite Valentino Rossi found himself stuck behind Dani Pedrosa after a poor start to the race which forced him to settle for seventh behind the Repsol Honda rider.
The rest of the pack became stretched out in the closing stages with Andrea Iannone taking eighth place for Suzuki comfortably ahead of Alvaro Bautista on the Angel Nieto Ducati and Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco.
Danilo Petrucci endured a race to forget in the hot temperatures at Misano down in 11th place for Pramac Ducati after stalling at the start of the warm-up lap before restarting his bike to rescue his grid position.
Petrucci’s team-mate Jack Miller, who started from the front row, suffered an early crash while aiming to keep pace with the front trio. Miller remounted but could only recover to 18th place.
Franco Morbidelli impressed for Marc VDS Honda to take 12th place ahead of fellow Honda rider and MotoGP rookie Takaaki Nakagami as Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Michele Pirro (Ducati) completed the points places.
Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro made a brave return to racing following his broken collarbone and back injury suffered at Brno but was forced to retire to the pits due to the pain.
