Submitted by Zara Daniela on
The many tyre combinations available posed a dilemma for the riders as the overcast sky appeared to clear while the MotoGP class was lining up on the grid. And after the fantastic opening acts of Moto3 and Moto2, the big boys had a lot to live up to – and they did their best all throughout the race.
After missing Warm Up while suffering from food poisoning, a very emotional Andrea Dovizioso achieved the hat-trick for Italy by winning the race in imperious form. While the start might have suggested a Yamaha battle royale, Maverick Viñales had to settle for second place, while Danilo Petrucci won’t mind losing a tiny bit of popularity with the home crowd by pushing Valentino Rossi off the final step of the podium.
Rossi had taken the lead at the start while Jorge Lorenzo appeared to fly the flag for Ducati in the initial stages, the Spaniard battling his former teammate and going into the lead of the race by lap two from seventh on the grid. The intense exchanges got Viñales back into contention, a big wobble dropping Lorenzo behind Dovizioso as the Yamahas were left to fight it off between themselves once again.
By lap six, Dovizioso appeared to be the only Ducati of the three pursuers to be able to challenge the Yamahas, making it past Rossi as Lorenzo slipped further behind Petrucci and Marc Marquez. By then Marquez was already one second down on the lead four and did not appear to recover much ground after that. He was caught by an impressive Alvaro Bautista halfway through the race, blitzing past the world champion on the straight, and even though the two were close until the flag, the order remained unchanged, with Bautista finishing fifth and Marquez sixth.
Things settled a third into the race with Viñales leading Dovizioso but not getting away from him, with Rossi right behind and Petrucci catching up steadily. The metaphorical storm hit on lap thirteen, when Dovizioso finally took his chance at the end of the straight and used every ounce of slipstream and late breaking to lead the race. Petrucci made his move on Rossi one lap later into the same turn one, one extra lap bringing one extra place, the Italian making it past Viñales as well and up into second.
Dovizioso started to check out at the front with five laps to go, Viñales forced to get past Petrucci soon after if he wanted to have a go at the win. It proved to be too little too late, despite throwing all the red sectors he could at it. The Italian replied brilliantly with fastest sectors of his own to take the flag over a second in front of the world championship leader.
Rossi had to settle for fourth place, still an impressive achievement considering his recent motocross adventures. Behind Bautista and Marquez, Johann Zarco finished seventh and did not feature as much as we have gotten used to expect from him. Lorenzo struggled after his brilliant start and fell back to eighth, just in front to teammate Michele Pirro. Another Italian who had a decent day was Andrea Iannone, who pulled off a good recovery job to complete the top ten.
Dani Pedrosa looked like a contender early on but he started going backwards on the hard front tyre, spending most of the race in tenth place before slipping further back in the final laps. Eventually, he tried a hopeful move on Cal Crutchlow on the final lap, sliding out and taking the Brit with him.
Breaking the Spanish domination of Mugello over the past seven years means that Dovizioso is now Viñales’ main challenger in the championship, the Italian twenty-six points down on the leader. Rossi is a further four points back, with both Marquez and Pedrosa stuck with the mission of recovering 37 points on their younger Yamaha rival.
Results:
| Pos. | Num. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
| 1 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati | 41'32.126 |
| 2 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +1.281 |
| 3 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +2.334 |
| 4 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +3.685 |
| 5 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | +5.802 |
| 6 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Honda | +5.885 |
| 7 | 5 | Johann ZARCO | Yamaha | +13.205 |
| 8 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Ducati | +14.393 |
| 9 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | Ducati | +14.880 |
| 10 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Suzuki | +15.502 |
| 11 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Honda | +22.004 |
| 12 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Ducati | +24.952 |
| 13 | 94 | Jonas FOLGER | Yamaha | +28.160 |
| 14 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | +30.676 |
| 15 | 43 | Jack MILLER | Honda | +30.779 |
| 16 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +42.306 |
| 17 | 50 | Sylvain GUINTOLI | Suzuki | +46.294 |
| 18 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Ducati | +50.731 |
| 19 | 22 | Sam LOWES | Aprilia | +50.740 |
| 20 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +50.897 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Honda | 1 Lap | |
| 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1 Lap | |
| 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia | 8 Laps | |
| 44 | Pol ESPARGARO | KTM | 10 Laps |
Comments
one giant leap
i joked about it in the quail. comments, but take a close look at the cool down lap replay of dovi's lap 2 wobble at the end of the straight.
i'd swear he has both tires off the ground.
Airborne
airborne
'tis why mx training is relevant
great day
breathtakingly brilliant for all the races today. happy for all the race winners. especially dovi and pasini. migno proved to be consolation for rossi i guess. didn't expect rossi to stay at the front group that long, but 4th is still an ok result considering his condition. woulda been fantastic if he won though. strange what happened with pedrosa and crutchlow. overall, a great day of racing!
Loved it and well deserved
I watched the races on BT Sport and was quite bemused when Suzie asked Colin to talk about the front row. Vin and Vale were commented on and then they spoke about Jorge, not a mention about Dovi.. Clearly, both factory Yamaha boys were plenty race fit as was Dovi. What a fantastic weekend for him and Borgo Panigalle. He sure knows his way around any bike whether RC211V, M1, Desmosedici. To do his first dry win at Mugello for Ducati just proves the tallent he has. Even Stoner's win back in 2009 was in mixed conditions. Mugello is probably the perfec circuit to show what any bike is all about. Right now the GP17 is as an all round package a balance between the Honda and the Yamaha. in perfect conditions. One would have expected Jorge to exploit it but 15 seconds off Dovi's winning time beggars belief as he is probably getting paid 15 times more. I guess Ciabbatti will be giving Dovi, Petrux and Bautista a big fat bonus this week for jobs well done. As Dovi sits 2nd in the title chase, Gigi and Co. may as well lend at least 50% of the effort to Dovi's side. Petrux rode a great race and I wonder if he intelligently backed off when he was closing Dovi down, analyzing the possible implications of a coming together unlike Iannone in Argentina. This sort of reminds me of 2006 with Capirex as a serious title contender. Then it all turned pear shaped after the shambles in Catalunya. Next week or so I guess. Hope for another Dovi win.
Good day indeed
Overly pleased for Dovi considering the hellish night he had and the emotional implications of the most important GP for him and for Ducati. maybe I'll be proven wrong and we'll find out some technical explanation. But for the moment I cannot but notice that despite the overconfident interviews of Lorenzo he still finished 14" behind Dovi. Exactly like the previous race. And probably Pirro did not dare make a move and showed merci (or maybe he complied to his boss' orders) and did not overtake JL in the final laps.
What's going on with the Hondas?
God did I enjoy the first few laps! It was pure great racing!
Last but not least : very sad to see VR drifting back and clinging to that 4th place. He fooled us for a moment and I thought he had a chance to the top spot. But only in some wild dreams you get that kind of injury and win in Mugello a week later. I wonder if VR is thinking of those 20 point he threw away in Le Mans... must be as painful as his injury. And unfortunately I doubt he'll be 100% in less than a week.
Honda.. revisit 2011
Dovi held HRC to contract and they had to run 3 factory RC212V's 800's. You can bet your bottom dollar Dovi got the factory kit but not the full monty support that Casey and Dani got. Casey blitzed the season, Dani got injured, Jorge got within 90 points of Casey at season's end and Dovi a scant 22 points adrift of him. 2012 and Jorge smokes a mid season crippled Stoner, Dovi on a sattelite Yamaha finishes 4th in the championship. Probably the most uncrowned alien current is DesmoDovi along with Dani.
Thing is right now within Ducati current, can they afford to maintain a love affair with Jorge as they did with Vale back then to vindicate their rider selection. I think not. The tire and track temperature shift was significant today. Dovi rides around it, Jorge can't. Mind you, Dovi did say that the difference between the two Michelin front's was six of one and half a dozen of the other. Silly Season! We don't have one right now, but its brewing and if I were Ducati, I would already be looking to see who I could fast track from Moto3 onto a Desmosedici for 2019.
Waiting for Crazy Joe...
For the last few laps I kept waiting for crazy Joe to torpedo Dovi...as for Dovi, get back to your hotel and get some more Maalox into your system...well done!!!
Interesting!
Interesting!
The first part of the race had more to see and consider than my mind could get through. Must watch again this week.
Jorge is making progress in dry conditions. I expect a bit more of it. But not much, not enough. In mating humans if the DNA is too close a fit/similar it gets decreasingly likely to result in a successful live birth. With MotoGP riders and bikes, the inverse is also true eh? He was at risk of being 5th Ducati today.
Hats off to Dovi and Ducati for a well earned win. But also how infuriatingly frustrating to be on a Yamaha with a bit better pace just behind them! So much more top end motor on the straights for the Duc, even w better drive out of the corner Maverick couldn't even stay in the red slipstream on the straight. Then the Duc (and late braking Dovi) drop a boat anchor trailing to the apex, where Vinales has a windscreen full of Red where he has caught up. This benefitted Rossi and Petrucci that were just behind late in the race. I get it, it was me that did the holding up on the tightest slow corners I struggled with before my nice motor left a frustrated rider behind. Poor guy, I imagine Vinales was losing his mind in there for a bit.
Rossi - #69 on the helmet, thanks! Class act there.
Magnificent
Mugello! What a track, what a weekend, certainly two of the best races for a while in the lower classes, Motogp fizzled a little. Pasini was the man of the weekend for me, what a race! One of the best I've seen for a long while
Wonderful tribute to Nicky Hayden, great to see those bikes on display and the great individual recognition from the riders. That 11 year old RC2-11V is still a stunning looking motorcycle, better than the current version for me.
The Duck was super strong with the medium rear lasting race distance, the dominance on the straight must be real mental challenge for the others trying so hard in the corners to keep ahead, only to have any advantage completely nullifed everytime-and they were too strong this time. Great to see Dovi win, and Petrucci-where did that come from? I have not read Jorge's excuse list yet, but once again he was 15 seconds off languishing and lucky to be in the top ten whilst his teammate won the race after a weekend of near perfect weather conditions on a track that Ducati have thoroughly tested on recently and over the years, Dovi should ask for a fairer pay deal! I don't believe Jorge will ever gel with that bike, Austria is his best and possibly only chance of another podium.
The Yamaha's were left wanting a little, yet nowhere near the embarassment of Honda's showing-they are in big trouble and Jerez was definately an asterisk race in more ways than one.
Very dissappointing for Rossi once again, a brave face was shown and obviously a tremendous effort and skill level to be there all race with those injuries, however everyone knows that the chances of another glorious win at Mugello are fading, this could have been his last even. Whether it be the 2017 bike which he just can't get sorted - bad luck, mistakes, injury, solid competition or dazzling one-off performances from those who don't regularly feature, he seems to have it all to do just to win a race this year and I can't help but feel this could be the first season since the Ducati days that he won't get on the top step-of course I hope I'm wrong!