Mugello MotoGP race fans earlier today witnessed another dominating performance by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who took the lead after the first lap and was never headed. This gives Lorenzo three consecutive wins.
Behind him, battles raged with both Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez recovering from poor starting positions. Ultimately, Marquez crashed with a few laps remaining, while Rossi was able to reach third place for a podium finish. Andrea Iannone brought his Ducati home in second place, while his teammate Andrea Dovizioso retired part way through the race after having suffered some issue with his motorcycle.
Rossi now has a narrow six point lead over Lorenzo in the championship, as Marquez falls 49 points behind the leader. For additional details, results and points visit the official MotoGP site.
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 25 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 173.7 | 41’39.173 |
| 2 | 20 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | 173.3 | +5.563 |
| 3 | 16 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 173.3 | +6.661 |
| 4 | 13 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 173.0 | +9.978 |
| 5 | 11 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 172.7 | +15.284 |
| 6 | 10 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 172.6 | +15.665 |
| 7 | 9 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 172.1 | +23.805 |
| 8 | 8 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | Ducati Team | Ducati | 171.7 | +29.152 |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 171.5 | +32.008 |
| 10 | 6 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Octo Pramac Racing | Ducati | 171.4 | +34.571 |
| 11 | 5 | 45 | Scott REDDING | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 171.1 | +38.553 |
| 12 | 4 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Athinà Forward Racing | Yamaha Forward | 170.8 | +42.158 |
| 13 | 3 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 170.7 | +44.801 |
| 14 | 2 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 170.3 | +50.435 |
| 15 | 1 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Aspar MotoGP Team | Honda | 170.1 | +53.060 |
| 16 | 63 | Mike DI MEGLIO | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 168.6 | +1’15.265 | |
| 17 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | AB Motoracing | Honda | 168.6 | +1’15.381 | |
| 18 | 33 | Marco MELANDRI | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 166.9 | +1’41.840 |
I was on a road trip and just got back and was able to watch it today. Had to avoid MCD until I did lol. Great race. Lorenzo is in his element alone and in front. Dani rode well so soon after surgery but when Rossi passed him I knew he would climb no higher. Boy needs more fighting spirit. Rossi is great..all that needs to be said. Ianonne did wonderfully. Good to see. The Ducati boys are showing they have the stuff. Amazing back and forth racing. Marquez is finding out what it’s like when everything doesn’t go your way. If the kid survives it mentally, he will be a better GP racer for it.
BTW how fabulous was Rossi’s save in slow motion? I was gasping in awe.
Magic.
I see it twice a day on FB…its amazing.
CRAP! THAT was what I was going to save the DVR to watch a few times!!
Ever get the feeling like you were gonna do something, or you NEED to do something, but you just can’t think of it… THAT save by Rossi was just unbelievable!!!
MM was running past the corners and squaring off his turns. It was evident that he was wrestling his bike. He was one of 4 riders that opted for the hard front, Crutch was another. Does anyone know if all four crashed? Crazy Joe was a superman for riding like he did with a messed up shoulder. JLo was on rails and the only thing that prevents perfection is a big serving of Humble Pie after he wins. Moto3 was fantastic! The passing the last few laps verged on insanity (and drafting).
I always enjoy the Moto3 races. Great stuff.
I don’t remember the other two riders who opted for the hard tire, but I do know that all of the Hondas seemed like they needed man-handling at that track.
C-Low was another with the hard front. Not sure of the third.
Theere were four in all that opted for the hard compound front – Marquez, Crutch… and the other two? I don’t recall.
Lorenzo smooth and fast – good. Over the top fist pumping and chest beating in winning – bad. Marquez Bonzi and fast – good. Humility in winning – excellent.
I certainly can appreciate the talent, but the JL attitude make me grit my teeth. To each his own I suppose. Good to the all the Ducs in a row though.
Like Vince Lombardi told his players ” when you get into the endzone, act like you’ve been there before”.
Great race. Both MM and Vale are giant racers who browsed thru the crowd and made to the leader pack. MM crash was unfortunate. I’m not sure it was his bike or his corner lean fault. It was almost happening to Vale too but he somehow regained traction thru the corner. Amazing. MM would be either 2nd or 3rd on the podium if he wasn’t crashed and Rossi might be out of podium reach. But that makes it exciting to watch.
Seems like just a couple of months ago that everyone was lionizing Marquez and writing Lorenzo off. A quick few trips around the track and the positions are switched. I love MotoGP racing.
re: “Seems like just a couple of months ago that everyone was lionizing Marquez and writing Lorenzo off.”
I know right…? silly geese them.
all’s they had to do was pay attention to the Law of NATCORK. it only told them everything they needed to sort the situation.
Never Actually Talking with Comprehensibly Organized and Rational….(someone please help with a suitable “K” word)
Kit?
LOL! Well played sir
Someone is just obsessed with the use of that acronym since he discovered it. Get over it already.
I basically just skim past Norm’s posts. They were entertaining for awhile but basically boil down to:
1) “NATCORK”
2) There are no heroes, only star alignments, mass undersea sponge migrations etc.
Oh and has anyone noticed MM hasn’t actually won since the VR46 clash? Maybe that little episode knocked him off his rhythm a little more than first seemed?
Somebody help me out as Norm is being more obtuse than usual. Is he saying the Repsols are “Recalcitrant Kit”? Hmmm….Dani did OK and he’s just back from surgery. It seems maybe Norm thinks anybody that doesn’t win on a particular weekend must be on “RK”. Either that or the non-winners somehow interfered with the mass sponge migrations and thus deserved to lose. How exactly can you tell if MM’s bike is handling badly anyway. He misses a fair amount of apexes even when he wins. BTW, he came very close to bowling over half the field at the start of LeMans and Mugello. Eventually his luck is gonna run out. I just hope nobody else gets injured when it does.
Re: “Is he saying the Repsols are “Recalcitrant Kit”? Hmmm….Dani did OK and he’s just back from surgery.”
I think it’s fair to day that at Mugello the Hondas were “uncomfortable”. Only one bike in the top-10 and several crashed out. MQ and Crutch were fast but couldn’t hold on.
Dave, my only point was Norm’s NATCORK comment about the Hondas now losing and Lorenzo winning. I just don’t get it. But I also think that saying all the Hondas were “uncomfortable” may be generalizing a bit. Dani never muscles a bike around, he is even less able to do so just a few weeks out of surgery. For him to finish in fourth that close to Rossi makes me think at least his Honda was pretty dang comfortable. Crutchlow was well less than 100% going into the race – no surprise there he crashed late. Marquez is physically unable to ride at anything less than WFO – no huge leap of logic to think he might bin it fighting with Rossi and Maniac Joe. Lorenzo hit his setup pretty square on the head….maybe not so much for some of the Hondas. But saying being a little off in the setup constitutes “RK” doesn’t make sense to me. Hence my original comment.
Norm is his own biggest fan.
Having watched all the practices and qualifying runs, the Hondas – all of them, not just the Repsols – really seemed to struggle on the Mugello track from a handling perspective. I think Marquez is still an ace pilot – he marched up front from 13th position in very short order before tucking the front and putting himself out of the race (and probably championship contention).
Honda obviously has to get something figured out with the bike, but I certainly wouldn’t write off Marquez yet. I think team 93 will get its act together soon and start sniffing at the podium again.
Um back when MD posted the contest (Feb?) I said MM would get 5 wins this year. I may have been a bit optimistic.
I still wouldn’t put it past him.
MM is a person take all or nothing, somehow this year he seen to lose some and take only one. well still had to learn on it way young blood still.
In the first post-race headline article MotoGP gave MM the exact non-attention he earned. They did not mention MMs name till the last sentence.
If I owned a new media outlet I would have signed agreement from every author to never mention the team or individual who did not win prior to the winner. For instance, headline “_______ Looses To ___________.” No matter how shocking the upset, the winner must always be mentioned first in sequence.
MM is a person all or nothing, he seen to be a little lost this year.
What is Nicky Hayden still doing in this league? At what point does he salvage whatever dignity he has and hang it up? It’s different if he’s vying for contention, he hasn’t placed better than 6th overall ever since he won the championship almost a decade ago.
As long as he wants to ride and someone is willing to pay him to do so. He frequently beats guys with much more recent world titles than his.
I could not more agree.
How or why should anyone be “offended” at someone who is simply making a living, paying his way through life, regardless how good or bad is their perceived performance?
Best wishes, Mr. Hayden!
As far as I can tell, the only Moto GP (Moto 2 & 3 don’t count) world champions in the field besides Nicky are Marquez, Rossi and Lorenzo. So which of them has he beaten recently?
Wasn’t limiting my statement to MotoGP W/C’s. There are other classes being raced to determine a world champion, all of them are historically more competitive than MotoGP and they all count.
However, the riding style and skills required to win in Moto 2 & 3 do not automatically mean success in the premier class. I also believe that the competitiveness of 2 & 3 are due more to the rules structure than an abundance of exceptional talent. Naturally the truly great riders will always stand out in any class as Nicky did in US Superbikes and Moto GP in 2005,6,7,8. Unfortunately, it appears that he is no longer among the elite riders.
I agree. As long as some team thinks he is good enough to pay him to ride their bike, there is no shame in riding their bike and cashing the paycheck.
As much as I admire Lorenzo’s machinic precision, the races he wins tend to be snorefests. That kind of boredom belongs in the 800cc era or Formula 1. Rossi needs to sort out his qualifying (second row starts at least) and Marquez needs to sort out, well, everything at this point. C’mon guys, give me a cracking season!!
Sure he cleared off and won handily, but there were some real battles raging not far behind him. Hardly a snorefest.
The guy who broke the total wins and consecutive wins records last season (MM, Champion last two seasons, last year by a country mile) starts @ 13 and with four laps to go he crashes just after taking #2.
Snorefest? No.
You must not have been watching the same race as me or maybe you were watching the cable broadcast. That was no snorefest.
Oh, it was interesting, no doubt. Would’ve been better if the camera just never bothered following Lorenzo after the first lap, to be frank.
I’m with you, Gutterslob. Races are just better when the lead is being challenged. Sure, the race for the other podium spots is a nice distraction when the leader is running away with it, but it’s just not the same as having a battle for the lead. As Ricky Bobby said, if you ain’t first you’re last.
I’m still waiting to see how Lorenzo reacts to having to battle for the lead. He’s proven he can distance himself from the field, whe he’s out front, but I still wonder how he’ll do racing in traffic. He’s not done well in those situations the last couple of years. Give him an empty track in front of him and there’s nobody better.
re: “He’s not done well in those situations the last couple of years.”
uh oh somebody’s just demonstrated they are either…
A: baby young to grandprix…?
or
B: weren’t paying attention august 2013 (silverstone) when jay opened nothing less than A CAN O’ WHOOP ASS…?
Maybe I would have been better served to say the last couple of seasons. Nobody is questioning his championship seasons, but he lost his mojo last year, and he’s not fared well except as an early front runner the last couple of years. With his ultra smooth riding style, it’s no wonder he excels with an open track in front of him. I still want to see if he still has what it takes to win in traffic.
I agree, Lorenzo’s issue seemed to start when Marquez bumped him out of a corner and he finished 3rd. Since then he hasn’t seemed to want to fight for positions. If someone passes him he doesn’t pass back. If he gets away clean or only has to make a pass or two to get into the lead at the beginning of the race then he’s fine but he doesn’t seem to have it in him to come from 4th on back mid race like Rossi does, and he has admitted that in interviews. He likes running on an open track while in the lead.
Hopefully being this close to the lead in points will drive him a little.
Re: I’m still waiting to see how Lorenzo reacts to having to battle for the lead.:”
Jorge is a fighter of the highest order. He had a slump for a little white there but now that he’s “back” I see no reason to believe he won’t fight for the lead the same as he used to (maniacally), if challenged.
Seems I read just a short time ago about Honda’s dominance in road racing, seems like that title or situation has now switched to Yamaha, and a slightly lesser degree to Ducati. Suzuki is next to regain some of it’s former road race glory.
One Honda in the Top-10 (and 4 Ducatis!?!?). They need to do some serious firin’ and hirin’.
Grrrr….
Meanwhile, Nicky could be the SBK champ but decides to do this instead, wtf?
What makes you think Hayden could come out on top against the British invasion dominating SBK right now?
Lorenzo is on fire. I think he had like an eight-second gap at some point before he slowed down and started waving to the crowd in the last few turns. The battles for second and third were pretty good. Also some good racing and Moto2 and Moto3.
Another fabulous race this season. Lorenzo dominant. MM93 just couldn’t restrain himself and gave a deserved second place to Crazy Joe Who rode through the pain to keep Ducati on the stand. Rossi did just as expected and came from behind to thrill the legions. Gotta love it.