Lorenzo grabs Italian crown
LUCO DI MUGELLO: Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo led a Ducati one-two in the Italian team’s home grand prix at the Mugello circuit yesterday while MotoGP leader Marc Marquez crashed and failed to score.
The win ended a long drought for the three-times MotoGP champion, who has struggled since joining the factory team at the start of 2017 and whose last victory was for Yamaha in Valencia at the end of 2016.
“It’s a special to win here with Ducati,” said Lorenzo of his first win with the Italian team.
Italian teammate Andrea Dovizioso was second, more than six seconds behind, with compatriot Valentino Rossi third for Yamaha, making the 39-year-old great the first rider to score more than 5,000 points in the top category.
Rossi, who started on pole position, moved up to second place overall and is now 23 points adrift of Marquez. Maverick Vinales third, 28 points back.
“It was a very difficult race, but we expected it, I struggled a lot especially at the front,” said Rossi.
“But in the end what I did was the right choice, because I managed to push in the final but keeping [Andrea] Iannone at a distance. It was my goal to return to the podium at Mugello, I’m very happy.”
World champion Marquez of Honda had just passed Rossi for second when he lost control of his bike and ended up on the dirt four laps into the 23-lap race. He finished 16th.
Earlier, Portuguese KTM rider Miguel Oliveira snatched his first win in the MotoGP2 category this season.
Oliveira, 23, started from 11th position but clawed his way back to finish ahead of Kalex riders Lorenzo Baldassarri of Italy and Spaniard Joan Mir at 0.184sec and 0.334sec respectively.
Oliveira — second in the world championship standings — closes the gap on overall leader Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex), who finished fourth on his home circuit.
Earlier, Spaniard Jorge Martin rode his Honda to a thrilling battle to the line in the MotoGP3 category.
The 20-year-old crossed just 0.019sec ahead of Italian Marco Bezzecchi (KTM) with Italy’s Fabio Di Giannantonio (Honda) third at 0.024.
Bezzecchi holds the championship lead with Martin moving up to second ahead of Honda teammate Di Giannantonio.