Petronas Yamaha’s Franky Morbidelli has finally won a MotoGP race and did it in some style, grabbing the holeshot in front of hometown hero Valentino Rossi and never looking back.
The Italian dealt with the pressure and passing attempts from Rossi and gradually pulled away from The Doctor, with his choice of hard front tyre enabling faster laptimes for longer and he crossed the line with a 2.2s advantage over Pecco Bagnaia as the scrap for second involved four riders.
Rossi had chosen the hard front tyre but swapped to the medium rear on the grid and looked set to take his 200th podium in front of a home crowd of 10,000 people.
But despite using everything in his arsenal, he couldn’t keep Bagnaia - who is still recovering from a broken leg - behind him.
Bagnaia opted for a hard/soft combination and was able to pass Rossi with six laps left. However, he hadn’t the pace to go after Morbidelli so settled for second place and probably the works Ducati ride after that display.
Rossi’s fans were set for massive podium celebration but Suzuki’s Joan Mir had other ideas and mugged the nine-time world champion on the final lap to take his second MotoGP podium.
Alex Rins, on the second GSX-RR, was also in the podium mix but he ran out of tyre with four laps to go and slipped to four seconds behind the leader.
He was nearly caught by Maverick Vinales whose tyre gamble failed and he ended the day in sixth. The Spaniard chose the hard rear and went from pole back to ninth place before the rubber began to work and he climbed back to sixth place.
Amazingly, Andrea Dovizoso’s seventh place was enough for him to claim the championship points lead by six points as Fabio Quartarao crashed with 21 laps to go, re-mounted, went into pitlane, changed tyres and then went down again at turn four on his first lap out.
Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller had been in the podium scrap but a soft rear Michelin proved to be the wrong choice as he slipped back to eighth.
Taka Nakagami crossed the line in ninth but was demoted a place after exceeding track limits on the final lap, which promoted Pol Espargaro.
Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was 11th with Brad Binder in 12th. Alex Espargaro ended in 13th with Iker Lecuona in 14th after stalling on the grid. Joan Zarco completed the top 15.
