2014 Misano MotoGP Race Results: All For A Point

By Jared Earle | Sun, 14/09/2014 - 13:29

Race report and results follow.

Jorge Lorenzo, on pole position, selected a harder front tyre that was considered to be a better choice for the conditions. He got a good start ahead of Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez jockeying behind him and the three of them set off together, dropping Andrea Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa.

On the second lap, Marquez made his move past Rossi, not wasting any time, but the old dog took his place back immediately, both racers trusting in their fresh tyres to not let them down in the duel. The next lap, the two fought hammer and tongs again, with Rossi once again coming out on top and, on the fourth lap, Rossi pressed his advantage and took the fight to Jorge Lorenzo and took the lead convincingly.

Lorenzo was then set upon by Marquez who made short work of him and the three of them then set into a rhythm, all three setting fastest laps repeatedly, that put several seconds between Lorenzo and Andrea Iannone, and even when Dani Pedrosa despatched Iannone for the fourth place, it was a gap of over three seconds, eight laps in to the race.

Rossi and Marquez rode in tandem as Lorenzo couldn't match them, watching the front two over a second ahead, but on the tenth lap, Marquez lost grip on a right-hand corner and the bike gently slid away from the apex, neatly dumping him on the tarmac in the process. Lorenzo passed him safely as he tried in vain to restart the bike, eventually recovering, with the assistance of three Italian marshals, last, in twentieth place.

With Rossi having a two point eight second lead over Lorenzo at the halfway mark, and Pedrosa a further three behind, with his own problem in the form of Andrea Dovizioso, all that remained as to see if Lorenzo's harder tyre would start to show its strengths and allow him to deny the Italian a victory at his home track.

It was not to be, however, and Valentino Rossi just kept the same gap from Jorge Lorenzo to the flag, passing several back markers on his last lap. Dani Pedrosa kept Andrea Dovizioso from third place with Andrea Iannone in fifth. Championship leader Marc Marquez finished in fiftheenth place, getting a single point for his efforts. His pace when not fighting Rossi was close to that of Pedrosa's, demonstrating that he may have been riding outside his limit to keep up with Rossi.

Valentino Rossi claimed Grand Prix victory 107 (his 81st victory in the top class) and added another record as the first rider to get more than five thousand career points, and closed to within one point of Dani Pedrosa in second place of the title chase. Marc Marquez still leads the championship, but only by 74 points.

Results:

Pos. Num. Rider Bike Gap
1 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 44'14.586
2 99 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha +1.578
3 26 Dani PEDROSA Honda +4.276
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +5.510
5 29 Andrea IANNONE Ducati +11.771
6 44 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha +18.999
7 38 Bradley SMITH Yamaha +23.100
8 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda +36.458
9 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Ducati +38.480
10 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati +45.878
11 17 Karel ABRAHAM Honda +54.765
12 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda +56.775
13 45 Scott REDDING Honda +1'02.734
14 15 Alex DE ANGELIS Forward Yamaha +1'13.546
15 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda +1'15.948
16 2 Leon CAMIER Honda +1'20.760
17 70 Michael LAVERTY PBM +1'26.422
18 23 Broc PARKES PBM 1 Lap
19 8 Hector BARBERA Avintia 1 Lap
  41 Aleix ESPARGARO Forward Yamaha 1 Lap
  6 Stefan BRADL Honda 22 Laps
  9 Danilo PETRUCCI ART 27 Laps
  63 Mike DI MEGLIO Avintia 0 Lap

 

2014
13
MotoGP
Misano, Italy
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Comments

Lorenzo said that based on FP4 (or was that WUP, can't recall exactly), he felt he didn't have the pace to match Rossi on the medium compound tyre. Combine that with the fact that temperatures were 5 degrees higher than they had been all week, he decided to gamble on the hard tyre.

I suspect Wilco and Jorge were reacting to Rossi's pace on the same tyre, as they didn't have it, but the Honda's were there for the taking.. A big scalp for Yamaha today and Jorge would have been desperate for it.

Huge win for Rossi, must have felt amazing for him. That wasn't Marquez crashing and handing him the win, that was Rossi breaking him and *taking* the win.

That said, proper respect for Marquez who did not take No from that engine to restart, and busted his butt getting back to 15th for that single point. Just ask Tom Sykes how much even 0.5 pts matters!

I was actually surprised that Márquez didn't knock his pace back a bit once it became apparent that #46 was pulling a gap on him. It would have made more sense to have taken the 2nd place, make the best of a bad setup and help secure his title bid with another 20 points up on the board.

I guess that's the racer in him, though. I doubt he'll be shedding any tears over one bad weekend but It'll be interesting to see if his approach changes over the next few races as we get near to world championship crunch time.

He said that the crash wasn't because he was riding over the limit. In fact, he said he wasn't riding at 100%. He just made a silly (in his own words) mistake and had the pace to fight Rossi.

Had Marquez not crashed, he wouldn't simply just ride into the sunset unchallenged, there would have been a mighty battle and judging from the first scuffle , today Rossi was the fastest man on the track, period.

I was looking forward to a 3 way battle at the end, but MM didn't seem to have the pace. The error was trying to stay with VR. JL not quite fast enough, and before the race I thought he would be the winner.

However MM is still King of the Mountain, but its good that he isn't a dead cert every time., great effort getting a point.

As is often the case recently (so far as the front is concerned) the 1st third of the race has the action, at least that's better than it was three or four years ago.

Well done to Rossi today though, he looked fast as soon as the track dried, and I loved the hanging off the bike at right angles and keeping the bike upright (can't remember which turn he was doing that) it looked amazing.

Clearly Rossi was strongest today and broke them all. Marc should have surrendered and taken 2nd but then again what's the point of a clear 3 races lead if you're not going to take risks? Well done for restarting and taking it too the end, some would have retired.