Jorge Lorenzo took a commanding, solitary and probably the easiest win of the season at the Misano World Ciruit Marco Simoncelli today and which could be the turning point of the championship, after Dani Pedrosa suffered a hard blow to his titles hopes: he was punted off track by an over eager Hector Barbera on lap 2. With Pedrosa out, Lorenzo carried his point advantage to comfortable 38 points, while the rest of the podium was a surprise: Valentino Rossi took second - his best result ever in the dry with the Ducati and Alvaro Bautista took his maiden podium in MotoGP.
The sighting lap was already problematic and the race start full of incidents that would lead up to Pedrosa’s drama. Abraham’s Ducati wouldn’t start as did Pedrosa’s Honda and both had to be pushed, returning to the starting line and as the lights were about to turn green, Abraham held up his arm as his engine died again and several riders had already moved and the race had to be halted. The start grid one again filled up with track personnel with everyone throwing tire warmers onto the tires to avoid them a drop in temperature and here came Pedrosa’s second problem with a minute to the re-start, His team struggled to remove the front tyre warmer causing the front wheel to lock and they were forced to lift Pedrosa’s Honda off the grid where they managed to release the tire warmer. Wheeling back the machine to re-join for another sighting lap, with Pedrosa riding behind the saftey car trying to fix some sort of problem and that was his third problem, having wheeled the bike off the grid and riding behind the safety car, Pedrosa was forced to start from the last place on the grid.
At the lights out Pedrosa with his usual lightning starts already gained several important positions only to be punted off track by Hector Barbera who missed his braking point and ran into the back of the Repsol Honda machine that sent both Spaniards into the kitty litter, giving Pedrosa his first zero of the season and a big blow to the championship.
Valentino Rossi had an excellent start and after the first turn was already second, a position he would hold until the end of the race despite coming under pressure by MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl who would hound him for the first half of the race until his tires went off and then he would suffer at the hands of Andrea Dovizioso and a fantastic Alvaro Bautista, while Ben Spies would look on from a fifth after disposing of the LCR Honda rider who faded to sixth place.
The third spot for the podium was probably the most exciting ‘racing’ part, after all the previous incidents as Bautista outdragged Dovizioso at the line in a photo finish that decreed the Spaniard the podium by a mere 0.003s.
Nicky Hayden brought home the second factory Ducati in 7th struggling with his hand injury, while Jonathan Rea will return to World Superbikes for the next round with an 8th place MotoGP position in his pocket. Randy de Puniet was again the best CRT rider taking 9th, while Michele Pirro closed out the top ten.
After a very promising 3rd place in qualifying Cal Crutchlow crashed out from 5th after 4 laps, Karel Abraham’s Ducati decided it just didn’t want to race today threw him off, while Aleix Espargaro also said good-bye to any points as did Mattia Pasini, both binning their CRTs.
MotoGP Misano Race Results:
01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 27 laps in 42’49.836
02- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 4.398
03- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 6.055
04- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 6.058
05- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 7.543
06- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 13.272
07- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 40.907
08- Jonathan Rea – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 43.162
09- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 1’09.627
10- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda MGP12 – + 1’13.605
