Reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo swept to a majestic win at Misano today, taking the lead on the run into turn one after the lights went out and jumping into second place in the title standings after an error from Marc Marquez.
The factory Yamaha man built a three-second lead in the space of six laps after grabbing the holeshot and his win puts him on equal points with Dani Pedrosa but he has more victories so takes second place and has Marquez to thank.
The Repsol Honda wunderkind made a mistake on the brakes on lap five and had to take evasive action to prevent a collision with team-mate Dani Pedrosa. He ran off-track giving Pedrosa a gap an allowed Valentino Rossi through to third place.
He re-joined as Lorenzo escaped and took four laps to get back on to The Doctor's rear wheel then made a gap for himself into turn nine, sliding up the inside of Rossi into the double right-hander and then letting off the brakes to sit the nine-time world champion up.
Rossi could do nothing but watch as Marquez disappeared off to hunt down Pedrosa, which he did with 11 laps to go. The youngster put a move on his team-leader as they changed direction through turn two but Pedrosa wasn't finished, going underneath Marquez four laps later.
Marquez was having none of it, though, and was straight back past and then pulled a gap which he kept to the line for second place with Pedrosa rounding out the podium. He also extended his championship lead to 34 points. Rossi got fourth in front of his home crowd but was 15s behind his team-leader.
Cal Crutchlow had Stefan Bradl for company in fifth for the entire race but the German mugged him on the last lap, demoting Crutchlow to sixth but the British rider remained happy as he had struggled with confidence all weekend.
Alvaro Bautista had a lonely race for seventh while Andrea Dovizioso led three Ducatis over the line in eighth. Bradley Smith, who has had front-end issues since first practice, was 11th.
Colin Edwards was first CRT man home after Aleix Espargaro got a ride-through penalty for jumping the start. He still managed to fight his way back to second though, with Hiro Aoyama third. Michael Laverty started brightly but slipped back to 18th after running off track a couple of times.
