Andrea Dovizioso dominated the San Marino GP, round 13 of the MotoGP World Championship, which was held today at the Misano circuit in Italy. At his home race, the rider from Forlì started from row 2, then overtook his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo to move into the lead on the sixth lap. He held the position right until the end of the race, taking the chequered flag 2.8 seconds ahead of Marquez.
Jorge Lorenzo, who started from the front row after yesterday’s pole in qualifying, had an unfortunate race. The Spanish rider led for the first five laps and after being passed by Dovizioso, was involved in a terrific battle with Marquez. Two laps from the end, while lying second, Jorge crashed at the Quercia corner, after which he got back on his Desmosedici machine to finish the GP in seventeenth place.
Thanks to today’s win, Andrea Dovizioso moves up to second place in the Riders’ standings with 154 points, 67 from Marquez, while Lorenzo drops to fourth with 130 points. Ducati remain second in the Manufacturers’ standings with 233 points, cutting the gap to Honda to 23 points.
Marc Márquez made a good start, hunting down the leading group on Lap 6. On Lap 15, the reigning MotoGP World Champion and Jorge Lorenzo started a series of spectacular overtaking exchanges in their battle for second place, eventually won by Márquez. With this result, the Repsol Honda Team rider has a total of 112 podiums in Grand Prix racing. His advantage in the 2018 World Championship has increased by 8 points, to 67.
LCR Honda CASTROL rider Cal Crutchlow claimed a first podium since his victory in Argentina as he took third place in Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. The Briton – who was carrying the sponsorship of Italian tool designer and manufacturer BETA Utensili this weekend – produced a patient ride at his team’s home race and was rewarded at the end as Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo crashed out on the penultimate lap to allow him into the top three.
Andrea Dovizioso
“I wanted this win so badly, because here at Misano Ducati and I have always struggled in recent years. In the test in August however we realized that we had made an important step forward and we could be competitive in the race. We worked really well during the weekend, in very different conditions, but both Jorge and Marc are very strong here so to win I had to do a perfect race. I started off in the right frame of mind, fully focussed on the race strategy, and when I took the lead, I pulled out a small advantage and then managed the situation until the finish. I’m really pleased, because winning here at Misano was very important for Ducati but also for me. Years ago it seemed like an impossible dream, but now we’ve done it and it fills me with so much satisfaction.”
Marc Marquez
“We’re very happy with this podium because we knew that at this track Ducati would be very fast and actually they were! They’d tested here and we hadn’t, but we fought hard and we got very close. I had a good start and then it took some time to bring the tyres up to temperature. I closed the little gap to the front but then I saw that Dovi was so strong today, so I set second place as the target. I was behind Jorge but he was faster than me. I kept pushing and pushing to see if I was able to make a move in the last lap and then he crashed. We took second meaning that we leave here with a 67-point advantage in the Championship which is very important. I’m happy, I feel comfortable on the bike, and I’m ready to prepare for Aragon, which is a track that I like very much.”
Cal Crutchlow
“The team did a fantastic job this weekend, it’s their home race obviously, I was disappointed not to race at mine two weeks ago, so we put everything into this one. We tried our best, sure we got lucky with the crash of Lorenzo at the end, but as I said, I don’t really care because we did a good job. I’m proud of my team and we now go to Aragon in good shape. I lost one second (behind Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins) and that just stopped me being there with Marc (Marquez) and Jorge (Lorenzo), but that’s the way it goes. I wasn’t willing to push at the start of the race as much as I could and I got passed by Rins. But overall we have to be very pleased for the team and we head into the rest of the year in good shape.”
