MotoGP

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo won a dramatic Gran Premio d’Italia TIM for the third successive year, leading home MotoGP™ championship leader Dani Pedrosa and Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, whilst local hero Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Alvaro Bautista all crashed out of the race.

Whilst Lorenzo made the perfect start by passing Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa in the first turn, Yamaha’s Rossi and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista came together in the fourth corner of lap 1, putting an end to both their races, and shocking the yellow-clad home crowd. They fortunately walked away unscathed, and whilst both were disappointed and clearly annoyed, Race Direction deemed it was no one’s fault and declared it a racing incident.

Back in the race, Pedrosa remained with Lorenzo until just past half distance, when small errors for two laps in a row allowed his teammate Marquez to attack, while Lorenzo put the hammer down, lapping at the highest pace of the race to pull out a healthy buffer. Pedrosa kept Marquez at bay until the 20-year-old went past on the inside of Savelli curve on the 19th lap. Marquez’s hard work was quickly undone in exactly the same place just two laps later, as an unforced error resulted in a fourth crash in three days. It was also the end of his bid to become the first rookie in MotoGP history to claim five rostrum finishes at the start of his premier class career.

Marquez’s crash allowed Pedrosa to retake second place as Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Crutchlow made the podium for the second time in two weeks, becoming the first British rider since 1987 to take back-to-back podium finishes. Stefan Bradl delivered a mature ride to fourth place to equal his career-best result for LCR Honda MotoGP, which had coincidently been achieved at the same race last year. Ducati Team filled positions five to seven, with Dovizioso eventually winning a battle with teammate Nicky Hayden while Michele Pirro raced the GP13 Lab bike to just behind the factory pair.

Aleix Espargaro carried his Power Electronics Aspar CRT bike to its best result yet in eighth spot, with Tech 3’s Bradley Smith achieving ninth despite being in immense pain with an injured wrist and finger. Hector Barbera completed the top ten for Avintia Blusens.

Moto2

Scott Redding has become the first British rider to win successive races in the intermediate class since 1971, taking the Moto2™ chequered flag at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM in Mugello on Sunday. The Marc VDS Racing Team rider extends his championship lead to 43 points over second-placed finisher Nico Terol, as Johann Zarco completed the podium.

On Saturday, Redding – who won his first Moto2 race last time out in France – celebrated pole position, starting in front of Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami as Germany’s Marcel Schrotter placed himself on the front row for the first time. Nakagami took the lead off the start line, but a decisive move from Redding saw the Gloucestershire rider slide through at Poggio Seco on the fourth lap. Nakagami, struggling under braking, immediately began to drop back and crashed out of the race at Scarperia on Lap 9 – this marked his second fall in as many Grands Prix.

As Redding began to stretch out a healthy advantage over Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2’s Terol and Came IodaRacing Project’s Zarco, Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro set about the task of damage limitation. From tenth on the grid, the pre-season title favourite made significant progress in the second half of the race. Aided by contact between Alex de Angelis and Xavier Simeon, which put the Belgian out of the race, Espargaro stole his final position of fourth from Mika Kallio just two laps from home.

Marc VDS’ Kallio would round out the top five, leading home Aspar’s Jordi Torres after an entertaining duel. Seventh-placed Simone Corsi on the NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up was the leading Italian rider from aforementioned teammate De Angelis, as Tom Luthi and Dominique Aegerter ended quiet weekends in the final two top ten positions for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing and Technomag carXpert, respectively.

Schrotter would finish 12th from third on the grid, whereas Tuenti’s Esteve Rabat – who had been the championship leader after Jerez – made a mistake and finished 13th. Six riders did not make the finish, including Indonesian duo Rafid Topan Sucipto and Doni Tata Pradita as the former fell and collected the latter at the first corner.

Moto3

Luis Salom has claimed his second Moto3™ win of 2013 following a multiple-rider battle for victory in the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM in Mugello. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider pulled out a small advantage on the final lap to lead home Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins and Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales, who retains his championship lead.

Having won the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix, Salom was yet to finish off the podium this year and has therefore maintained his impressive run. He went third on the opening lap and, with a handful to go, could be seen making the most of his KTM power to pull in front of the pack on the start/finish straight.

The crucial moment came three laps from home, as Rins’ teammate Alex Marquez allowed Salom to pull out enough of a gap to hold the advantage, by the time Rins and Viñales re-joined the top three group. Rins, having bogged down slightly at the start, was nonetheless delighted with second place from third on the grid.

Viñales led at half distance, having dispatched with Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 pole-sitter Jonas Folger on Lap 4 before heading up a thrilling lead group of six riders. Behind, another multi-rider cluster was contesting positions eighth and downwards, and on several occasions up to six men could be seen riding side-by-side on the drag down to first corner San Donato.

Oliveira celebrated his best result of the season so far to finish fourth for Mahindra Racing from Marquez, both of whom enjoyed sizeable amounts of time in the lead. Folger ultimately finished sixth, whilst the top ten was completed by GO&FUN Gresini Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli, Avant Tecno’s Niklas Ajo, Aspar’s Eric Granado and Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller.

Five riders failed to make the finish of today’s race, including Romano Fenati, who flew over the front of his San Carlo Team Italia bike following contact with RW Racing GP’s Jasper Iwema, while Redox RW Racing GP’s Jakub Kornfeil and Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Matteo Ferrari were left highly frustrated to have ended up in the gravel trap of the final corner on the last lap.

Source: motogp.com