The Mugello round of the MotoGP series was held earlier today, and defending champ Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) came out on top after a narrow, come-from-behind pass on Honda’s Marc Marquez at the checkered flag. Lorenzo had led nearly the entire race before being challenged by Marquez in the final few laps. An early battle between Lorenzo and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi ended when Rossi suffered a mechanical DNF — much to the chagrin of the partisan Italian crowd.
Perhaps riding more brilliantly than any other competitor, Ducati’s Andrea Iannone charged from the back of the pack after a horrible start to take the final spot on the podium.
Lorenzo extends his points lead in the championship to 10 over Marquez. You will find the race results below, or you can visit the official MotoGP site for additional details and results.
| Pos. | Points | Num. | Rider | Team | Bike | Time/Gap | ||
| 1 | 25 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 41’36.535 | ||
| 2 | 20 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +0.019 | ||
| 3 | 16 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati Team | Ducati | +4.742 | ||
| 4 | 13 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +4.910 | ||
| 5 | 11 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | Ducati | +6.256 | ||
| 6 | 10 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +8.670 | ||
| 7 | 9 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +13.340 | ||
| 8 | 8 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | +14.598 | ||
| 9 | 7 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | +18.643 | ||
| 10 | 6 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | Ducati Team | Ducati | +22.298 | ||
| 11 | 5 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda | Honda | +27.936 | ||
| 12 | 4 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Avintia Racing | Ducati | +35.712 | ||
| 13 | 3 | 50 | Eugene LAVERTY | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | +38.032 | ||
| 14 | 2 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | +40.094 | ||
| 15 | 1 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | +59.811 | ||
| 16 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | +1’04.397 | |||
| Not Classified | ||||||||
| 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 15 Laps | ||||
| 45 | Scott REDDING | OCTO Pramac Yakhnich | Ducati | 15 Laps | ||||
| Not Finished 1st Lap | ||||||||
| 43 | Jack MILLER | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 0 Lap | ||||
| 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 0 Lap | ||||
| 76 | Loris BAZ | Avintia Racing | Ducati | 0 Lap | ||||
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Strange nobody seems concerned that BOTH Yamaha motors blew up,and the rest of their motors are sealed with no development allowed on them. Could be a long season if there is a defect in all of them…
I’m sure plenty of people are concerned, especially the Yamaha team.
And now Yamaha says it wasn’t an engine issue, but a software problem with the new spec ECU, which allowed the engines to over-rev and damage the valves. So it shouldn’t be a factor from here on out. Crisis over. Move along…
The GP race was good, but why no coverage of Moto2 or Moto3? The Moto3 race was fun as heck to watch, and aside from the goofy restart, the Moto2 race was too. I’m glad I purchased VideoPass this year, as I’m now familiar with the up-and-comers in the sport. It makes it much more interesting to watch the full GP series.
Moto2 and Moto3 get no love, but they were great races. They usually are in fact.
BeIN sports showed all 3
Hey just realized no one is talking about/complaining about the Michelin tires. Interesting..
Good point. The Warm Italian weather may have helped grip perhaps.
I was wondering if tires had anything to do with why JL didn’t gap the field like he normally does with starts like that. Was he slower than usual, or were VR and MM faster?
I haven’t heard him say anything about the tires yet, and Lorenzo isn’t one to shy away from giving reasons why could be faster. JL did make the comment that he didn’t have the pace. I don’t know if that means that he wasn’t going as fast as he thinks he should have been going or if that means that his fastest just wasn’t fast enough to build a gap. Whatever the case, I sure hope to see more races like this one!
One of Lorenzo’s most telling post-race quotes has to have Marquez and the Honda engineers seething…
“I’m sure that if I had been fighting Rossi or Iannone, I would have lost.”
He knows that the only reason he came out on top is Marquez’s Honda can’t power out of a corner as smoothly as the Yamaha or Ducati. He was physically drained, out of energy, admittedly done. Upon getting passed, he had accepted defeat, but Marquez’s little wheelie gave Jorge the gap he needed to pull back the victory.
Funny quote considering that Iannone almost never beats him.
Has top be frustrating for Marquez. He had a 10-win streak and those are already looking like the good ol’ days.
What a great race! Unbelievable finish. Sorry to see Rossi go out like he did. I would be curious to hear what the problem was. Lorenzo rode a surperb race and deserved the win. I thought the Ducati and Suzuki would be closer at the end, possibly a podium. Looks like it is going to be one heck of a season!
Didn’t look like two guys fighting at the end that would have taken it “easy” on each other last year to just help out. Never did buy that story from VR as much as I like what he does for this sport, what he continues to do on the track, etc.
Bumping each other at 215 is not a friendly game, nor is that VERY close pass that MM was able to pull off right before the final corner.
All deserve applause for their ability to master a machine like they do and run within or in this case without inches of each other.
If Iannone and Vinales would have had good starts and VR didn’t go July 4th on us… it’ could have been a small version of the Moto3 race… OMG!
WOW – JL is an incredible rider – he outfoxed Rossi every lap until Rossi went Boom. Then gathered up his championship winning form in an epic and fair last lap battle with MM. Truly great championship stuff.
What a beast he was into turn 1 – incredible to watch.
Seems to me like MM “outfoxed” JL. He had that race won until JL simply powered by him on the straight. JL ran a good race, I’ll give him that. But horsepower sure helps.
How can you can’t say the race winner was “outfoxed?”
Marquez and Lorenzo know the strengths and weaknesses of their bikes and their competitors. Marquez was brilliant during that race, but he failed to open enough of a gap due to the persistence of Lorenzo to win that race. Lorenzo held on to the possibility of winning until he crossed the finish line and fought every second of the way. Regardless of what one may think of him personally, Lorenzo was the fox of that race. Period.
So that was Lorenzo’s plan, then? Have an epic battle throughout the entire last lap, risking life and limb, all the while knowing all he had to do was follow MM out of the last turn and motor by him?
Wow. Clever!
If you watch JL’s entry into the final turn, he had a line on MM but knew that MM would close it aggressively either taking both of them out or forcing JL to loose momentum. Instead JL eased up early focused on keeping momentum and assumed a wider line through the turn. He clearly knew his best chance was to carry more corner exit speed and catch a draft. If you think a rider of Lorenzo’s caliber wins by fluke, you’re sorely mistaken.
I think waging an epic battle is always the plan. Did he know he would get the chance, much less be able to scoot by Marquez on that last little stretch of tarmac? Of course not. The point is JLo kept riding like he could win the race, up until the point where he actually did. Marquez got by him, and JLo kept fighting and kept himself in a position to capitalize on any mistake or chink in the armor.
Had that been Rossi that made this pass for the win, everyone would be clamoring on about how sly and crafty Rossi was, using his Jedi mind powers to steal Marquez’s drive on the last stretch so he could sneak around him at the last second. But poor JLo can’t get any respect!
Thanks for making my point for me, Jeremy! You agree that JL couldn’t have known he could blow by MM, so for all he knew coming out of the last corner, MM had “outfoxed” him!
I do think JL ran a fantastic race. I also think MM ran a fantastic race. They put on a great show at the end, and they both fought like dogs for the win. But I’m also certain that coming out of the last turn, they BOTH thought MM had the win, and I think JL is thanking his lucky stars that he was able to get him at the line. This does NOT constitute a clever game plan. He got lucky.
And even though I’m sure you’ll shake your head at this, I’ll tell you right now that if it were Rossi in that position instead of Lorenzo, I would absolutely be saying the same thing. Of course, I would be much happier that it was Rossi winning, but I would be fully cognizant of the fact that luck and horsepower got him the win.
Believe it or don’t.
And jimmihaffa, if you think that even the best don’t get lucky sometimes, then it’s you that are sorely mistaken.
Luck, good and bad, is as much of this game as skill. Rossi has plenty of skill, yesterday he had bad luck. JLo has plenty of skill, yesterday he had good luck. When you are talking 5/100’s of a single second difference between 1st and 2nd, someone had good luck and someone else had bad luck. So many “if’s” come into play. Rossi lost a championship over being beaten by .002 in a race one year. 5 points can be big at the end of a season.
Maybe we need two definitions of luck, Scott. My definition of luck – Marquez high-siding in the last turn handing JLo victory…Your definition of luck – JLo calculation, however remote, meeting opportunity.
Scott, I certainly agree that JLo probably thought (as Marquez did) that Marquez likely had the race in the bag. Had JLo just held back and settled for 2nd place, I would say he had been outfoxed. But he didn’t and was able to capitalize on an opportunity to win the race. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. Which is fine by me since I know I’m right. 🙂
This is for jimmihaffa.
My take on this luck thing would be Lorenzo loses the front taking them both out. Lucky they were not hurt. 🙂
Keep in mind I am a bitter Rossi fan.
The last lap battle was exactly that – a frantic last lap battle between 2 champions – incredible riding by both contenders, Lorernzo OUTFOXED Rossi many times running into turn one when Rossi clearly had the draft. He outrode and outfoxed the man who has done the same to others. He was EPIC into the first corner. Taking Rossi on the outside / inside / out-braking Rossi – then running him deep and wide – fantastic stuff. It really shows he is a complete and outstanding Champion…..
MM had it in the bag but for the wheelie that made him chop the throttle. MM played the stalker strategy to a T and in a way did out fox JLo. In the end, it may have been his heavy application of throttle out of that last turn that did him in.
And Lorenzo was there to take advantage. The fox calls such a chain of events “dinner.”
Marquez is probably the ultimate predator when it comes to the stalker strategy as you call it, and I don’t deny that he played the card brilliantly. But Lorenzo is the one that went home with a full belly on Sunday, and it took more than luck to achieve it. Credit where credit is due.
“MM had it in the bag but for the wheelie that made him chop the throttle”…. I seriously doubt he chopped the throttle. It looked like some riders were getting a small wheelie in this section of the track, probably couldn’t get the wheelie control dialed in perfectly. Damn electronics anyway!
I’ve watched the race twice already and will likely watch it again. Lorenzo, Marquez and Rossi were all masterful that day.
I bet JLo could make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs
I hit the wrong button on your post – lol! I meant to hit reply on the Kessel Run comment – LOL!
Mechanical dnf for Rossi? Did Lorenzo put sugar in his tank, or have his little kitten Marquez do it? That’s unusual for Yamaha.
Lorenzo lost an engine during warmup, too.
Obviously got the bikes mixed up crawling around the pit in darkness lol
Curious as to who tracks the hours on the motors in the Yamahas. Seems that if you had one explode that morning, you might want to change the motors in both team bikes if they had the same amount of time on them. Shades of Spies at Indy in the year that he was snakebit.
Well I’ve forgoten the technical details, but factory teams are only allocated ×number of engines to use during the season.
This is true, but a poor finish due to a penalty from using another engine is still preferable to a DNF due to a mechanical failure. At a certain point it seems like the options should have been better weighed.
Actually, they get just 7 engines b4 penalized..had to look it up..
I read somewhere that both of the Yamaha grenades were nowhere near their expiration mileage. Rossi being in better shape than JLo.
Man that was great. I wish Rossi could have stayed in the the hunt, but I certainly can’t complain about that race. Exciting stuff!
Gotta hand it to Jorge. Even after getting passed for what everyone thought must have been the winning pass by Marquez, Lorenzo just stayed absolutely cool as a cucumber and did what he had to do flawlessly to snatch a very unlikely win right out of Marquez’s clutches.
This is a cruel, cruel sport.
What a way to ruin my Sunday morning. This was shaping up to be a flag-to-flag duel between Rossi and Jorge, with Marquez right there too, and we were denied what would have been the one showdown we’ve been waiting seemingly forever to see.
I blame Hot Dog, who clearly sabotaged both Yamahas. Why he couldn’t have jacked up Rossi’s for the morning warm-up instead of for the race, well, that’s Hot Dog for you.
Haterz gonna hate.
The haters are easy spot with their yellow merchandise.
From their delight at Jorge’s engine blow in warm up, to their booing the podium of one of the greatest last lap battles, it’s hard to feel anything but contempt for them.
We were denied nothing except a political rally. JL feeds of negativity the way that Rossi does on adolation, which is why Rossi has failed to demoralise him (his tactic with any challeneger). Marquez is overachieving on the Honda in a way that suggests that when, not if, Honda get their act together, there’s a man who will dominate this class for season after season, just like it felt when he strung 9 or 10 consecutive wins togther 2 years ago.
It was 10, I believe..and yes Marquez should dominate once Honda gets its head out of its –.
I am shocked that thousands of Rossi fans, in their home country, would boo Lorenzo after his super-classy display on the podium at Sepang last year. We all know Spanish fans would have welcomed Rossi with open arms if Rossi had been up there giving JL the thumbs-down over an incident he wasn’t even involved with…
That was last year. Gotta stop the hate sometime, somewhere. Mugello just isn’t that time or place apparently.
Some can never forgive Jeremy. Shame, because hate is a poison that can destroy the experience.
Oh, please. This was the first visit to Italy since the Malaysian incident. To the Italians, it’s as fresh as if it had happened last weekend!
Maybe they’ll calm down in a couple of years. Maybe. But haven’t you heard? Hate is the new Peace and Love!
Mickey wrote, “Some can never forgive Jeremy. Shame, because hate is a poison that can destroy the experience.”
Wow, Jeremy, what did you do to inspire so much hate?!
😉
LOL the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe (‘) or in this case, the COMMA
“Wow, Jeremy, what did you do to inspire so much hate?!”
I’d ask my wife, VLJ, but she isn’t talking to me.
Yep, commas (or the lack thereof) can make for hilarious sentences, as can other Yogi Berra-style grammar gaffes…
Capital letters: the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Again I don’t really think Americans understand this stuff. I compare it to soccer where you have these rivalries between countries in Europe that spill over into crazy fights and riots.
At least that level of behavior hasn’t totally made it to MotoGP yet.
I guess it is hard to break traditions that go back half a millennium or more.
The sad truth is that Lorenzo remains an arrogant D#%&head, his antics up on the podium dont help the cause either. Marc appears to remains humble, taking the negativity in his stride. Wont be long before its Jlo who stands man-alone to face the world JLo hate club.
Lorenzo has had little chance to be anything except his own man. Rossi’s approach to all other challengers has been to demean and marginalise them. No one would beat Rossi in the popularity stakes due to his cartoon persona and efficient marketing machine.
Lorenzo has decided that he’ll get on with winning races and the heck with the boos and cat calls. He doesn’t come across as being particularly warm, but he’s dealt with the tide admirably throughout his career.
And as for your ‘Arogant d….’ comment, just think back to Rossi’s ‘him or me’ stance with Yamaha six years ago. See what conclusions you arrive at.
“We were denied nothing except a political rally.”
We were denied the first mano-a-mano flag-to-flag fight in many a year between Rossi and Lorenzo, and, as it so happened, Marquez turned it into what would have been a dream three-way brawl at the front.
I’m not sure what race you were watching, or even what race you tune in to see, but Rossi vs Lorenzo neck and neck for twenty-some-odd laps is among the rarest of spectacles in all the MotoGP firmament. It’s something we simply never see.
Me and brother Vodka slipped into the Yamaha garage in the middle of the night. We put sugar into, what we thought was Rossi’s fuel reserves. Unfortunately it was put into JLo’s tank also. All of the best plans went awry.
I was hopping that the two Yamaha guys would dust each other up but it was unfortunate that Rossi’s engine blew up like it did. Did anyone see Jlo’s engine go in FP4? Rossi’s bike blew a lot of white smoke, almost like it was oil and water. Disappointing, to say the least.
Suzuki has got a winner on their hands with Crazy Joe.
I love this sport. Moto 3 and Moto 2 were fantastic too.
With all the small cameras scattered around every part of MotoGP machines, the one that is sorely missing is the inside helmet cam. The look on MM’s face as JL scooted by him at the finish line could only have been priceless.
Oh God yes. COTD.
Ha! great idea. I for one would like to know if he rides around with his tongue hanging out.
What a great idea! I’m not an expert, but it seems the technology to do this should be in place?
I truly am not a Lorenzo fan, and I think Rossi was still in it until the pop, but he didn’t flinch. He just won.
“Perhaps riding more brilliantly than any other competitor” – perhaps. JL definitely deserves credit for great start, holding VR off till DNF, and then beating MM. Call it a draw….
How can you call that a draw? Not once did he run wide like everyone else. He held his lines brilliantly lap after lap, had near perfect defense, braked brilliantly, and drafted and shot past when he needed to for the win. Great execution by 99.
As far as rides/races go he had a great one, whether you like him or not.
Geez, Mickey, that’s Tim’s point. He’s quoting the part of the article that implied Iannone had the best ride of the day, and he’s giving JL his due…
Oh geez I missed that point entirely. You are right..my bad. Sorry Tim.
Besides, I’m mad at Iannone for re-passing Dani with less than 2 laps to go after Dani worked his way up to third by passing both Ducati’s lol. Looked like it was going to be both Honda’s on the podium 1 and 3, and ended up 2 and 4.
Felt bad for Rossi, he was riding very well till the bomb inside the cases went off and blew smoke everywhere.
No worries mickey, perhaps it would have been more clear if I’d said “snatching back victory from the jaws of defeat most rightously”.
My respect for JL has gone up a lot with this race. And it’s true that I don’t really like the guy and his various antics, but my OP was certainly not about or tainted by that, it was objective observation. He really did a perfect job.
There’s a big difference between running away and commanding the race – which is of course also great – and defending under pressure, which till now has been a weakness. I.e. if NOT out front and running away, no way. This race – it’s mainly sad we were robbed of a fair fight with all 3 running so fast, but then we did get JL stuffing to MM…pretty delicious stuff.
heck of a race from flag drop to checkers
Great Race. Would have been even better if Rossi didn’t DNF.
Now that was good stuff. I wish more races were that exciting!