Dovizioso wins but Lorenzo crashes at Misano

Andrea Dovizioso has picked up a third win of the MotoGP season in Misano but Jorge Lorenzo cost the Ducati Team a one-two with a penultimate lap crash.

Lorenzo looked to have seen off Marc Marquez in the race for second before he went down, while Jack Miller was not a factor from second on the grid due to an early spill on his Pramac Ducati.

Championship leader Marquez was instead handed another four points while Cal Crutchlow assumed the final podium position on his LCR Honda.

Lorenzo led the field away from pole position as Marquez braked late at the first corner to slot into third, behind Miller, from a start of fifth.

Dovizioso, however, was keen to go with his team-mate and picked off both Marquez and Miller before the end of Lap 1.

Marquez jammed his Repsol Honda down the inside of Miller at Turn 14 on Lap 2, forcing #43 to pick his bike up, before the Australian went down at the same corner a lap later.

Dovizioso tailed Lorenzo until he slipped past #99 at Turn 7 on Lap 6 and put a second on the Spaniard in the next five laps.

By then, Marquez was pressuring his future team-mate and took over second position when Lorenzo ran slightly wide at the Turn 14 hairpin on Lap 14.

Lorenzo twice repassed Marquez but each time couldn’t stick the move until he went charging through at the fast Turn 12 on Lap 19.

Meanwhile, Dovizioso was as much as 2.325s to the good at the end of Lap 21, only for Lorenzo and Marquez to begin to catch him.

With a handful of laps remaining, however, it became apparent that the Italian was in fact managing the margin as he went on to a comfortable win and gave Ducati a sweep of the two races on Italian soil in 2018.

Even then, when Lorenzo looked fairly secure in second position and had nothing else to gain, he lost the front end of his Ducati at Turn 8 on Lap 26.

Marquez ultimately finished second by 2.822s and stretched his championship lead to 67 points, with Dovizioso displacing Valentino Rossi from second position in the standings.

“Not like this no,” said Dovizioso when asked if he would win in such fashion.

“I’m really happy because I did everything perfect and that was the only way to win today because Jorge was very strong and to beat Marc was very difficult.

“I’m so happy also because I never win in Misano and it’s something I really wanted.”

Crutchlow took third having overtaken Alex Rins on Lap 9 when the Suzuki Ecstar rider had to start conserving his soft compound tyres.

Rins nevertheless did enough to pick up fourth position ahead of Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales, who started from the front row but had a now typically sluggish opening to the race.

Rounding out the top 10 were Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), Rossi (Movistar Yamaha), Andrea Iannone (Suzuki Ecstar), Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati), and Johann Zarco (Tech3 Yamaha).

Lorenzo remounted but finished outside the points in 17th, a position ahead of Miller.

Stefan Bradl (HRC Honda) and Xavier Simeon (Avintia Ducati) failed to finish due to crashes while Pole Espargaro (Red Bull KTM) was also a retirement.

The next round is the Aragon MotoGP on September 21-23.

Race results: San Marino MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	42:05.426
2	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+2.822
3	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	+7.269
4	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+14.687
5	25	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+16.016
6	26	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+17.408
7	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+19.086
8	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+21.804
9	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	+23.919
10	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+27.559
11	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	+30.698
12	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	+32.941
13	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+33.461
14	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	+35.686
15	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	+35.812
16	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+46.500
17	99	Jorge LORENZO	ESP	Ducati Team	Ducati	+46.614
18	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Alma Pramac Racing	Ducati	+50.593
19	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	+55.168
20	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Angel Nieto Team	Ducati	+1’02.255
21	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	+1’09.475
22	12	Thomas LUTHI	SUI	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Honda	+1’12.608
23	23	Christophe PONSSON	FRA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	1 Lap
DNF	6	Stefan BRADL	GER	HRC Honda Team	Honda	10 Laps
DNF	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	10 Laps
DNF	10	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	25 Laps

Championship points

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	221
2	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	154
3	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	151
4	Jorge LORENZO	ESP	130
5	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	124
6	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	119
7	Johann ZARCO	FRA	110
8	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	110
9	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	92
10	Alex RINS	ESP	79
11	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	76
12	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	64
13	Jack MILLER	AUS	61
14	Tito RABAT	ESP	35
15	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	32
16	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	26
17	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAL	24
18	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	19
19	Bradley SMITH	GBR	15
20	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	14
21	Scott REDDING	GBR	12
22	Mika KALLIO	FIN	6
23	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	4
24	Michele PIRRO	ITA	1
25	Thomas LUTHI	SWI
26	Stefan BRADL	GER
27	Xavier SIMEON	BEL
28	Sylvain GUINTOLI	FRA
29	Christophe PONSSON	FRA