Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo utterly marmalised the MotoGP field at Misano this afternoon, pulling a seven-second lead over Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner before the Australian was caught and passed by team-mate Dani Pedrosa with six laps to go.
The move by Pedrosa compounded Stoner's woes by handing Lorenzo four more points back in the title chase and the gap is now 35 with five races left to run. The Australian was expected to clear off but says he is suffering from tiredness, he started to make mistakes and that allowed Lorenzo to get away.
San Carlo Honda's Marco Simoncelli won out in a titanic scrap for fourth place between himself, Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and the second Yamaha of Ben Spies who got another less-than-average start but it is the first time Simoncelli has beaten lifelong rival Dovizioso in the premier class.
The big-haired Italian swapped places, and paint, with Dovizioso twice in the last three laps while Spies kept a watching brief until he tried a move on both on the final circulation but ran wide and allowed the pair back past.
Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi got a great start was pushed up to sixth on the first lap but settled as Simoncelli and Spies got past him. He finished 24 seconds behind the leader in seventh but only five seconds behind Spies, from which he will take some positives.
Alvaro Bautista had a lonely end to the race after passing Colin Edwards with 12 laps to go and crossed the line in eighth. Hector Barbera just held off Britain's Cal Crutchlow for ninth but the Coventry man was only three-tenths slower than the satellite Ducati. Edwards eventually finished in 13th after suffering from appalling arm-pump.
Misano once again proved to Nicky Hayden's bogey track, He crashed out after only a couple of laps, adding to his string of DNFs at the Italian circuit. "I hate this place,' he actually said.
