Marquez leaves it late to beat Quarataro to Misano victory
Full San Marino MotoGP race results at Misano
Marc Marquez saw off Fabio Quartararo on the final lap to clinch victory at Misano and extend his MotoGP world championship lead to a 93-point advantage.
Marquez spent the majority of the race stalking Quartararo in the lead once the pair blasted by pole-sitter Vinales who suffered his customary slow early laps despite a good getaway from the starting gird.
Full San Marino MotoGP race results at Misano
Marc Marquez saw off Fabio Quartararo on the final lap to clinch victory at Misano and extend his MotoGP world championship lead to a 93-point advantage.
Marquez spent the majority of the race stalking Quartararo in the lead once the pair blasted by pole-sitter Vinales who suffered his customary slow early laps despite a good getaway from the starting gird.
Meanwhile Pol Espargaro acted as a KTM road block holding up the likes of Valentino Rossi, Andrea Dovizioso and Alex Rins which allowed the front trio to escape just ahead of Franco Morbidelli in fourth.
The reigning MotoGP world champion left his attack until the start of the final lap, diving up the inside at Turn 1, but Quartararo wouldn’t take it without a fight as he repaid the favour at Turn 4.
But using the better top speed of his Honda, Marquez sprinted back by the MotoGP rookie for a block pass into Turn 8. The Petronas Yamaha rider gave it one final go, coming close to clipping Marquez’s rear tyre at Turn 14, but he couldn’t find a way through which allowed the Spaniard to take his 77th career victory – one more than Mike Hailwood.
With Quartararo having to settle for second place, Vinales couldn’t bridge the gap to the top two leaving him on the final step of the rostrum.
Rossi also gave himself too much to do in the closing stages after overtaking Morbidelli meaning he could only reach fourth place for the third consecutive race.
Morbidelli held on for fifth place to see all Yamahas in the top five at Misano, with Ducati’s Dovizioso down in sixth place to further dampen his title ambitions.
After taking a stellar front row start in qualifying, Espargaro held on for seventh place for his best result since the Catalan round for Red Bull KTM.
After Rins tumbled out at Turn 4 on Lap 15, Joan Mir led the Suzuki charge in eighth place ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller.
Factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci could only reach 10th place aided by crashes from Ducati test rider Michele Pirro and LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow.
Johann Zarco enjoyed a clean race to take 11th place for Red Bull KTM ahead of sole Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro in 12th.
Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati) beat Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda) to take 13th place, with Hafizh Syahrin completing the points places for Tech3.
Miguel Oliveira (Tech3) remounted after falling at Turn 4 on Lap 7 to take 16th ahead of Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda). Francesco Bagnaia was another faller for Pramac Ducati.
Andrea Iannone missed the race for Aprilia after suffering an injury in FP4.
