Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso shook off an illness that saw him unable to take part in this morning’s Mugello MotoGP warm-up to take a fairytale win in front of his home crowd and his first victory in dry conditions.
Dovizioso took the lead with ten laps left to run, using the GP17’s grunt to power past series leader Maverick Vinales and he didn’t look back, slowly eeking a gap over the chasing Vinales, Danilo Petrucci and Valentino Rossi to cross the line with a 1.3s margin and becomes the first Italian to win on a Ducati at Mugello.
Britain’s Cal Crutchlow tipped Dovizioso for the win on Friday and the prophecy came to pass as the Italian used a medium/medium tyre combination to pull off Ducati’s first win of the year.
It was a four-way dice for the lead early doors after Petrucci forced his Octo Ducati GP17 through the pack to get onto the back wheel of Rossi in third place. He took third from The Doctor at Bucini on lap 13 and set about the rear wheel of Vinales.
Petrucci then passed Vinales as he ran wide at Bucini as Rossi began to drop out of podium contention but the Spaniard was not to be denied, going back past with four left to run and held it to the line.
Vinales increases his championship lead and Petrucci stood on the podium in front of a 100,000-strong Italian crowd.
Alvaro Bautista put the Pull and Bear GP16 in fifth place, passing and then holding off challenges from Marc Marquez, who chose medium Michelins front and rear. The RepsolHonda man challenged early on but then couldn’t hold on to the front runners and slipped back.
Johann Zarco was forced to move away from the soft rear as track temperature rocketed but still managed seventh with the medium. He passed Jorge Lorenzo on the other works Ducati with 13 left to run.
Ducati test rider Michele Pirro finished in ninth with Andrea Iannone, who has also been ill, completing the top ten. Scott Redding ended in 12th with Sam Lowes 19th and Bradley Smith in 20th.
It was a bad day for Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow. The pair were circulating outside the top ten and then Pedrosa crashed as he tried to pass the LCR Honda man, taking him out and Crutchlow, with his usual grace, wouldn’t accept Pedrosa’s apology in the gravel trap, shoving the Spaniard and stucking his finger up.
