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MotoGP Mugello: Lorenzo finally brings home a win for Ducati

Jorge Lorenzo has finally brought home a MotoGP win for the works Ducati team with a riding masterclass at Mugello, leading from the first corner to the chequered flag as championship leader Marc Marquez crashed on lap three.

Lorenzo was as much as a second quicker than the field even in the last four laps, putting the soft rear Michelin to good use to finish with a six-second advantage over team-mate Andrea Dovizoso with Valentino Rossi sending the home crowd into spasm with the final podium spot - the first time for three years.

It was a hark-back to Lorenzo’s glory days on the Yamaha as he swept into the lead ahead of Rossi and Marquez, and then proceeded to lap in the 1’48s until lap 21 when he finally dropped into the 1’49s some four laps later than the rest of the field.

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Dovizioso came from fifth on lap one to move into second on lap seven, and he then pulled away from the fight for third. But the Italian came close to losing the runner-up spot as Rossi was able to reel him in and only missed second by a quarter of a second in the final analysis.

Both Lorenzo and Dovizioso opted for the soft rear but Dovi went for the aysmmetric hard front and Lorenzo the medium. Rossi went hard front, medium rear which gave him the grip he needed to pull away from Andrea Iannone when it counted.

The departing Ecstar Suzuki man looked like he had cooked his front medium as he ran wide at Scarperia three laps in a row but The Maniac gathered it all together and managed to bag fourth place, helped by late error from team-mate Alex Rins who had been in the fight for third.

Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci looked like he had the pace to make it a Ducati podium clean sweep when he fought back from a Marquez nerfing on lap one to slip into third but he too cooked his soft rear and succumbed to Cal Crutchlow late on.

The Briton ended in sixth place after opting for medium/medium all round and looked like he had podium pace in the last five laps but couldn’t find a way to the front of the pack.

Maverick Vinales had another shocking start, slipping back to tenth on lap one but then fought back in the closing laps, sticking in the mid-48s to finish in eighth after fending off Alvaro Bautista in ninth. Johann Zarco completed the top ten.

Marquez finished outside the points after losing the front into Scarperia on lap three. His lead in the title chase is now 23 points ahead of sworn enemy Rossi. The Repsol Honda man was one of a long list of crashers which included team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

The little Spaniard was in collision with Taka Nakagami at turn two on lap one while lap two was a crash-fest. Scott Redding and Karel Abraham went down at turn 15, Jack Miller at turn four and Tom Luthi also ditched it.

Hafizh Syahrin ended as top rookie in 12th, one behind Pol Espargaro with Franco Morbidelli taking the final point behind Bradley Smith.

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