San Marino MotoGP: Marquez beats Quartararo in last lap duel

Marc Marquez’s final lap move past Fabio Quartararo saw him clinch victory at Misano and extended his lead in the MotoGP championship to 93 points. This also happened to be his 77th career victory, putting him past the late Mike Hailwood and 4th on the list of most victories.

The race started with Maverick Vinales on pole. The Spaniard got off to a good start but couldn’t hold onto the lead and Quartararo moved past him before the end of the first lap. By this point, Marquez, who started 5th, had picked off Pol Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli to move up to 3rd, behind the lead pair. By the time Marquez pulled off a move past Vinales to climb up to 2nd place, Quartararo was a second ahead and pulling away.

However, it took the reigning champion only a couple laps to bridge the gap and he was right on the tail of the Quartararo’s Yamaha Petronas SRT until the very last lap. The Frenchman kept his calm under pressure but the last lap plunge moved Marquez into the lead. While Quartararo kept Marquez in his sights through the next few corners, he had to roll off the throttle to avoid running into the Honda, and was forced to settle for 2nd place.

Vinales finished in 3rd place, 1.6sec behind the winner with the factory Yamaha of Rossi crossing the line in 4th, just over 11sec behind. Quartararo's Petronas teammate Franco Morbidelli finished 5th, making it four Yamahas in the top five. Andrea Dovizioso managed a 6th place finish in what has been a difficult weekend for Ducati, while Pol Espargaro who stood a chance of a better finish after starting in 2nd place, came 7th. Joan Mir brought home 8th place for Suzuki, ahead of the Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller and factory Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.

Zarco, who will be leaving the factory KTM team at the end of this season, crossed the line 11th, ahead of the sole Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro in 12th. His teammate Andrea Iannone missed the race after suffering an injury in FP4.

It was a difficult day for Alex Rins, who received a long-lap penalty only to crash out of the race before he could serve it. Francesco Bagnaia and Miguel Oliveira went out at the same corner. The LCR Honda pair of Takaaki Nakagami and Cal Crutchlow, along with Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro also suffered DNFs.

Result

POS	RIDER	TEAM	BIKE	GAP
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	42m25.163s
2	Fabio Quartararo	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	0.903s
3	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	1.636s
4	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	12.660s
5	Franco Morbidelli	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	12.774s
6	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	13.744s
7	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	20.050s
8	Joan Mir	Suzuki	Suzuki	22.512s
9	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	26.554s
10	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	Ducati	31.456s
11	Johann Zarco	KTM	KTM	32.388s
12	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	34.477s
13	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	35.325s
14	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	Honda	47.247s
15	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m02.280s
16	Miguel Oliveira	Tech3 KTM	KTM	1m07.831s
17	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	1m24.666s
18	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	1 Lap
-	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	Retirement
-	Michele Pirro	Ducati	Ducati	Retirement
-	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	Retirement
-	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	Retirement
-	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	Aprilia	Withdrawn

 

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