MILAN: Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso won the San Marino MotoGP on Sunday for the Ducati rider’s third success of the season, holding off world championship leader Marc Marquez of Honda.
The 32-year-old Dovizioso finished 2.822sec ahead of the Spaniard on the Misano track on Italy’s Adriatic coast with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow snatching third for Honda after pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo of Ducati crashed with two laps to go.
Four-time world champion Marquez extends his overall world championship lead to 67 points ahead of Dovizioso, who moves up two places to take second spot from Italian Valentino Rossi, who finished in seventh place.
Rossi drops to third overall, with Lorenzo now in fourth.
“I’m happy to have beaten Marquez and to win here where I had never managed to before,” said Dovizioso, who was born 60 kilometres up the road from the Misano track.
Dovizioso — runner-up last season to Marquez — set the early pace after starting from the second row on the grid.
He overtook his Ducati team-mate Lorezno on the sixth lap and never looked back.
Lorenzo and Marquez closed the gap until the pole starter fell, leaving the way open for Dovizioso to follow on from his wins in the season-opening race in Qatar and the Czech MotoGP last month.
“We’ve done good work towards the title,” said Marquez.
“It was a very difficult race. Fighting against the Ducatis is another world. I had ridden well in the warm up, but I struggled to stay with them.
“I pushed to be second, I’m sorry for Jorge’s fall, but we were both pushing a lot.”
Ducati’s Jack Miller had started on the front row but crashed out with Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales, also on the front row, dropping to fifth.
“I was lucky enough to be third thanks to Lorenzo’s fall,” said Crutchlow, who moves up two spots to sixth in the overall standings.
Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia, of Kalex, won the Moto2 category ahead of Miguel Oliveira of KTM, to extend his lead on the Portuguese rider to eight points in the overall standings. — AFP
San Marino Grand Prix results (The 13th leg of the 19-race world championship)
MotoGP
1. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 42min 05.106sec, 2. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) at 2.822sec, 3. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/LCR Honda) 7.269, 4. Alex Rins (ESP/Suzuki) 14.687, 5. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 16.016, 6. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) 17.408, 7. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 19.086, 8. Andrea Iannone (ITA/Suzuki) 21.804, 9. Alvaro Bautista (SPA/Ducati Angel Nieto Team) 23.919, 10. Johann Zarco (FRA/Yamaha Tech3) 27.559
Overall standings
1. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 221pts, 2. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 154, 3. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 151, 4. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Ducati) 130, 5. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Yamaha) 124, 6. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/LCR Honda) 119, 7. Johann Zarco (FRA/Yamaha Tech3) 110, 8. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati Pramac) 110, 9. Andrea Iannone (ITA/Suzuki) 92, 10. Alex Rins (SPA/Suzuki) 79
Moto2 (selected):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Kalex) 41min 02.106sec, 2. Miguel Oliveira (POR/KTM) at 3.108sec, 3. Marcel Schroetter (GER/Kalex) 4.094, 4. Mattia Pasini (ITA/Kalex) 6.320, 5. Joan Mir (ESP/Kalex) at 6.728
Overall standings
1. Francesco Bagnaia (ITA/Kalex) 214, 2. Miguel Oliveira (POR/KTM) 206, 3. Brad Binder (RSA/KTM) 119, 4. Lorenzo Baldassari (ITA/Kalex) 116, 5. Joan Mir (ESP/Kalex) 114
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