FOR ITALY’S MOTOGP STARS
Big day for Italy with three race wins, plus first bike, rider combo win on home soil in 43 years
ANDREA Dovizioso overcame pre-race sickness to win his home Italian Grand Prix for Ducati yesterday, while Spaniard Maverick Vinales finished second on a Yamaha to increase his MotoGP lead to 26 points.
Dovizioso became the fourth different winner in six races and moved up to second place overall, ahead of 38-year-old compatriot Valentino Rossi, who finished fourth for Yamaha.
Italian Danilo Petrucci came third, after starting ninth on a non-works Ducati, to make it two Italians on the podium at the Mugello circuit in the rolling countryside north of Florence.
“A lot of emotion during the race and before the race my energy wasn’t so good,” Dovizioso, who had plenty of fans in a crowd mainly cheering for Rossi, said.
“I really wanted this victory. It’s a dream come true for every Italian rider.”
The win was his career third and the first in the top category by an Italian rider on an Italian bike on home soil since Gianfranco Bonera won the 500cc class on an MV Agusta at Imola in 1974.
It was also Ducati’s first at Mugello since Australian Casey Stoner in 2009.
Vinales now has 105 points to Dovizioso’s 79, with Rossi – who spent a night in hospital last week after a crash while riding a motocross bike – on 75.
“I didn’t want to risk so much because I saw Valentino and Marc were quite far away, so I decided to stay at least in the second position,” Vinales said.
His arm was still painful after a crash on Friday.
“Dovi was so strong today, so difficult to catch and all the time he was really pushing me a lot.”
Dovizioso was suffering from a stomach bug before the race and dropped back at the start while Rossi led, before Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo took over briefly and then Vinales hit the front.
With the top four running close, Vinales seemed headed for a fourth win of the season until Dovizioso passed on lap 14 to pull away.
A 69-second silence was held before the race for 2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden, the American who raced with the number 69 and died last month after being hit by a car while training on a bicycle in eastern Italy.
Italian Mattia Pasini also thrilled the home crowds yesterday as he clinched victory in a three-way struggle for the Moto2 Italian Grand Prix.
Pasini roared his Kalex over the line to beat Switzerland’s Thomas Lüthi by just 0.052secs, while Spain’s Alex Marquez flew over third at 0.136secs in a tight finish. The trio had engaged in an epic cat-and-mouse struggle over the last 10 laps of the rolling track with its tight turns allowing multiple takeovers and long straight seeing the three open a gap on the field.
But the Italian hit the front just at the right time.
Another Italian, Franco Morbidelli, was fourth, 3.6 seconds adrift, to maintain his lead in the Moto2 season standings with 113 points after six races so far.
Italy’s Andrea Migno claimed his first victory in the Moto3 category, winning in front of his home fans.
Migno, 21, riding a KTM, snatched the win by a margin of 0.037 seconds from compatriot Fabio Di Giannantonio on a Honda, with Spain’s Juanfran Guevara in third.
‘ I really wanted this victory. It’s a dream come true for every Italian rider