Magical Marquez makes it six

An intriguing duel between Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) saw the former come out on top of the MotoGP Gran Premio d’Italia TIM at Mugello, with Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) joining them on the podium.

The two Spaniards put on a great show in front of the Italian crowd, battling for the lead for several laps, only for Marquez to clinch a sixth successive victory in 2014 by 0.121s on the final lap.

This win makes Marquez the first rider since 2002 to win six successive MotoGP races and the first rider since Giacomo Agostini in 1971 to win the opening six races of the year in the premier class. Marquez can now also claim a 50 percent win rate in MotoGP, an impressive stat.

 “I’m really happy, I think this is the toughest race of this year,” Marquez said. “I was struggling in the beginning, Jorge was very strong mid corner. He carried a lot of speed. With the used tires I felt better, like in the practice. Everything was perfect, we were able to overtake him on the straight due to a change we made to sixth gear. I’m really happy for the team too. We now go to the home track, it will be a difficult race, but we’ll try to fight for victory again.

The Yamaha rider took an early lead but Marquez began to hunt him down after only the third lap. As the second half of the race began the battle became more intense with frequent passing.

“When I passed Jorge I knew immediately he would come back. That’s why I didn’t push 100 percent,” Marquez added. “I was on the limit behind him so I pushed for one lap to try to be calm. On the last lap I pushed 100 percent to get the win.”

Lorenzo made an excellent race start and quickly dispatched of Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) before taking the lead. The Mallorcan soon had to contend with Championship leader Marquez and the two battled hard for the majority of the race. Lorenzo was able to maintain an advantage on the corners, his Yamaha M1 able to maintain a high speed, but lost out on top end pace down the straight.

“The bike worked very well on the braking, better than ever,” Lorenzo said. “We need some more top speed, we lost all the tenths in the straight with the slip stream. With a couple more kilometers we could have kept the first position. I think we can get the victory soon, not this time, but soon.

“When you finish so close to first, you’re not fully happy, your goal is so close. But this race compared to the others, this is the best. I could fight with Marc for 60 percent of the braking, the top speed is still where we are lacking. I will try to repeat this podium at my ‘home’ race.”

At his 300th Grand Prix the yellow sea of fans were willing Rossi to capitalize on any mistake from the front two, and although The Doctor had to settle for third by just under three seconds it was still a great ride for him from 10th on the grid.

“The practice and the weekend were a little difficult,” he admitted afterwards. “I think I had a chance to fight with them, but we gave that away yesterday in qualifying. From the fourth row it is very hard to win. We had a problem in Warm Up so we couldn’t try a new setting.

“I was very lucky in the beginning and could overtake many riders who used the slip stream yesterday in qualifying. It is good to be back on the podium in Mugello, it is very special.”

With Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) and impressive rookie Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) the next two across the line – albeit more than 10 seconds further back – there were four Spaniards in the top five.

Behind them Italians Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Iannone also got great support from the crowd en route to sixth and seventh respectively, with Iannone making a brilliant start and leading in the early stages having started second on the grid.

The top 10 was completed by Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) and Yonny Hernandez (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing).

Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) and Michel Fabrizio (Octo IodaRacing Team) both retired from the race with technical problems.

Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) crashed out on lap 4, but walked away unharmed. Shortly afterwards Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) went down, the German being hit by the Englishman’s bike as it slid across the track, with both riders fortunately avoided injury.

Tito Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team) got his tactics just right at Mugello, winning the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM Moto2™ race by 0.248s from Luis Salom (Pons HP 40), with Jonas Folger (AGR Team) crossing the line third.

Rabat produced his best lap of the race on his penultimate circulation having come from third position at two-thirds race distance, to overtake his less experienced rivals. The championship leader extended his standings lead to 22 points with his third victory of 2014, further underlining his World title credentials.

Rookies Salom and Folger both produced excellent rides, each leading the race before Rabat took control.

An intriguing battle for fourth place in the final stages saw Simone Corsi (NGM Forward Racing) outpace Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert) by just 0.007s, with Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team) finishing just behind that pair.

Josh Herrin (AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing) crashed out early on.

Another fantastic Moto3™ race concluded with victory for Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46), with Isaac Viñales (Calvo Team) and Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) joining him on the podium.

The talented Italian teenager held his nerve to win his home race while sporting a special red, white and green Italian livery, clinching maximum points by just 0.01s from Viñales, who himself beat Rins by virtue of a faster best lap as they crossed the line together.

A last lap crash between championship leader Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo), Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Enea Bastianini (Junior Team Go&FUN Moto3) saw them all miss out on the points, with Miller therefore seeing his standings advantage cut to just five points.

The top five also featured Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing) and Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo), as they both crossed the line within 0.3s of race winner Fenati.

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Race Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

MotoGP Point Standings (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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