Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo cruised to his third successive MotoGP win of the season at Mugello this afternoon, crossing the line five second ahead of local hero Andrea Iannone with Valentino Rossi in third and Lorenzo cuts the points gap to only six.
But it was another disaster for reigning champion Marc Marquez who topped an horrendous weekend by crashing out of the race with six laps to go, losing the front at turn three despite holding it up on his elbow.
Marquez had charged through from his 13th place on the grid to fourth on the first lap and was involved in a dice with Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso and team-mate Dani Pedrosa but his hard-compund front tyre eventually called enough after the youngster had run wide into turn one several times.
Lorenzo simply cruised away at the front, lapping a second faster than his competitors and Iannone had no answer in the end. The Italian is riding with a broken humerus and an heroic display saw him put in a calculated and skilful ride for second place.
Rossi got an awful start and took his time picking his way through the field. He reeled in the four-way scrap for second, passing Dovizioso for fifth a lap before the Italian retired with a technical problem.
The Doctor then passed Pedrosa on the same lap as his team-mate crashed but just didn’t have the pace to catch Iannone in the time available, despite setting his personal best lap of 1’48.173 on the penultimate circulation.
Britain’s Bradley Smith won the battle of the satellite bikes, crossing the line in fifth place. He had been in a race-long scrap with Cal Crutchlow but the CWM LCR Honda rider added to his crash in warm-up and went down fast at turn eight with three laps left. Crutchlow had selected the same hard tyre as Marquez.
Pol Espargaro followed Monster Yamaha team-mate Smith home in seventh with Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales in eighth. Danilo Petrucci, whose tangle with Aleix Espargaro resulted in the Spaniard crashing, was ninth behind Ducati test rider Michele Pirro while Yonny Hernandez completed the top ten.
Scott Redding ended in 11th place whole Loris Baz finished as top Open class rider. Eugene Laverty scored another point for 15th. Nicky Hayden and Jack Miller also went down, as did Stefan Bradl.
Championship standings:
1 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 118
2 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha SPA 112
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 83
4 Andrea IANNONE Ducati ITA 81
5 Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 69
6 Bradley SMITH Yamaha GBR 57
7 Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR 47
8 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha SPA 45
9 Maverick VIÑALES Suzuki SPA 36
10 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA 32
11 Aleix ESPARGARO Suzuki SPA 31
12 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati COL 26
13 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 23
14 Scott REDDING Honda GBR 18
15 Hector BARBERA Ducati SPA 16
16 Loris BAZ Yamaha Forward FRA 10
17 Michele PIRRO Ducati ITA 8
18 Nicky HAYDEN Honda USA 8
19 Jack MILLER Honda AUS 6
20 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda JPN 5
21 Alvaro BAUTISTA Aprilia SPA 5
22 Eugene LAVERTY Honda IRL 3
23 Stefan BRADL Yamaha Forward GER 1
