Factory Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo cruised to the win in today's Mugello MotoGP race, crossing the line some 5.5s seconds ahead of Dani Pedrosa with Britain's Cal Crutchlow taking his second podium finish in a row.
But it was disaster for Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez who both crashed out of the contest. The Doctor only made it through two corners before a collision with Alvaro Bautista saw both of them hit the gravel while Repsol Honda's Marquez lost the front through Casanova/Savelli seconds two laps after taking second place from Pedrosa.
Marquez had sat behind his team-mate,looking for a place to pass and then went under his compariot at Casanova/ Savelli but just a couple of minutes later, he lost the front at the same place and went out. The crash promoted Pedrosa back to second and Crutchlow, who had a lonely race, on to the podium.
The Monster Yamaha man had been slowly gaining on the factory Hondas as Pedrosa was suffering with grip problems and holding Marquez up. The younger of the two Spaniards waiting for somewhere to put a clean pass on his and this was allowing Crutchlow to creep up.
As he crossed the line, Crutchlow had cut the deficit to just one second and he has now extended his lead over Rossi in the championship as The Doctor could do nothing but watch from the pit garage. His collision with Bautista on the entrance to turn three is under investigation by race direction.
Stefan Bradl won a race-long scrap with Andrea Dovizioso to take fourth place while Nicky Hayden dropped off the pace at the end for sixth. Michele Pirro, on the lab Ducati, was seventh with Aleix Espargaro eighth.
Britain's Bradley Smith put in an heroic performance to take ninth place after a huge crash in morning warm-up properly rattled his cage and added to the Friday incident which saw him crack his scaphoid and mangle a little finger.
Michael Laverty, who first saw this track on Friday morning, ended the race in 17th pace and onlyt half a second behind his more experienced team-mate Yonny Hernandez.
