MotoGP: Italian GP – Danilo’s Delight

The packed Mugello crowd turned out in their thousands to support their Italian heroes, most notably 9x World Champion – Valentino Rossi – Though it would be another local rider, Danilo Petrucci, who took the flag.

The crowd appeared to be in a subdued mood, unlike their usual loud chainsaw revving party atmosphere, as their home hero Rossi had qualified in his worst qualifying position at Mugello, (18th) and his equal worst qualifying position since Assen in 2006, when he had a cracked ankle and wrist after a crash in practice.

No matter what qualifying brings the stage was set for another masterclass in racing at the picturesque Mugello circuit in the Tuscan hillside. Marquez started from his 56th premier class pole position, taking the record from Valentino Rossi. Could he take his 48th premier class win and move clear of his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo into 4th in the all-time premier class wins category? He would have to fight off rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo and Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci from the front row.

When the lights went out Marquez took the holeshot from pole position from fellow Honda rider Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso.

Dovizioso found himself moving into 2nd at the start of lap two after using the Ducati’s top speed to power past the Honda rider. Danilo Petrucci quickly moved into 3rd spot and held on to the back of his experienced team-mate Dovizioso.

Alex Rins was the rider on the move, making places up at the start and setting two consecutive fastest laps as he worked his way up behind the top 3.

Fabio Quartararo, after starting from 2nd dropped to 8th in the early laps but was the to Yamaha for the moment with his team-mate Franco Morbidelli sitting behind him, Maverick Vinales was puched back to 12th while Valentino Rossi only made 2 places up at the start.

Rossi moved passed his former team-mate Jorge Lorenzo into 15th place, a failed move on Joan Mir into turn 4 (Materassi) saw the 40 year old home star and the young Spaniard make a trip across the gravel, dropping back to 21st (Mir) and 22nd (Rossi). Rossi was the quickest rider on circuit after the incident, setting 1:47’s but pushing too hard to catch back up, he lost the front at the fast Arribiata 2 turn and to the dismay of the home fans he was out of the race.

Back at the front Danilo Petrucci made his way past his team-mate and on the same lap past early race leader Marc Marquez into the final turn, Bucine. Powering down the main straight Marquez caught the slip stream of Petrucci as did Dovizioso, the chaos ensued into turn 1 at San Donato. Marquez ran wide and Dovizioso pushed back into 2nd but Marquez retaliated into turn 2’s Luco but Dovi was fazed and ushed pass in to turn 3 of Poggio Secco. Miller pushed Marquez back to 4th before Rins squeezed into 4th ahead of Marquez at turn 4.

Dovi made his way back to the front and had 8 other riders close behind, stretching back Fabio Quartararo in 9. As the last 10 laps approached, the top 5 of Dovi, Petrucci, Marquez, Rins and Miller created a gap and pulled away.

With 8 laps remaining, Jack Miller set the fastest lap of the race – 1:47.657 but he was pushing hard to keep pace with the top 4 and lost the front at turn 4 and crashed out of the race.

The tension was building and the Italian fans were in a stunned silence as Petrucci was now leading the way ahead of Marquez as Dovi was now back in 3rd ahead of Alex Rins.

Dovi made his way into 2nd with 5 laps remaining made his way past Marquez into 2nd at San Donato and followed that up with a pass on Petrucci for the lead a lap later. Petrucci retaliated at turn 1 with 3 laps remaining.

As the started Petrucci led Dovizioso and Marquez but Marquez got a double slip-stream from both Ducati’s and ran into turn 1 in the lead ahead of Dovizioso but ran wide and Petrucci slipped back into the lead, a lead that he would hold until he crossed the line ahead of Marquez and Doviziosos, Rins finished in 4th with Takaaki Nakagami picking up his best result in 5th.

Danilo Petrucci had been suffering a severe cold all weekend but managed to not let that affect his physical condition in the race and he picked up his first win after 124 MotoGP race starts, he became the 2nd Italian rider to win on an Italian bike at the Italian Grand Prix after Dovizioso became the first to do so in 2017. This win has surely secured him a new Ducati contract for 2020, especially after the person he was going up against Jack Miller crashed out of the race.

Marquez’s 2nd place means he extended his championship lead over Dovizioso to 12 points, with Rins now 27 points off the lead and Petrucci moves up to 4th in the championship ahead of Valentino Rossi

Moto2

The Dynavolt Team led off from the front after they qualified 1-2 on the grid, Tom Luthi got to the front ahead of Marcel Schrotter and pulled a gap ahead of Alex Marquez on the first lap. Marquez got himself into a rhythm and set the fastest lap on lap 2 – 1:51.881 and closed the Dynavolt team-mates down.

Schotter made a move into turn 1 (San Donato) on his team-mate Luthi but Luthi held on for the time being. Marquez made his move into 2nd ahead of Schrotter, Luca Marini on the Sky VR47 Team bike followed Marquez through into 3rd but Schrotter would make his way past again until Marini made his final move on the German to move into 3rd and worked to close the gap on Luthi and Marquez that had opened up.

Alex Marquez had eased up behind Luthi and made his move into the lead and lap-after-lap he pulled clear by 0.1/0.2 ahead of Luthi and Marini who was closing down the Swiss rider.

Luca Marini took 2nd place from Luthi with 9 laps remaining after passing Luthi through Cassanova and Savelli (turns 6&7) and held a 0.4 tenth advantage over Luthi until the end of the race.

For the 2nd race in a row Alex Marquez picked up the win by nearly 2 seconds ahead of Luca Marini and Thomas Luthi who had just managed to hold off championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri, after he started from 15th on the grid. Baldassarri’s team-mate Agusto Fernandez picked up 5th place.

Alex Marquez moves up to 2nd in the championship on 86 points, 2 points behind Baldassarri with Luthi 4 points off the lead. Mugello marks the 2nd race in which Marquez has won, this is his first back-to-back win in Moto2 and his first back-to-back victories since Catalunya and Assen in 2014 when he won the Moto3 Championship.

Moto3

It was the usual Moto3 chaos and the young riders put in a huge effort to try an claim the win at the ItalianGP and more importantly, winning at the Mugello circuit.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta looked in control through most of the race, finding pace through the fast turns that the others could only dream of, he made a few mistakes by running wide pushing too much into turns but he slipped back as the start of the final lap began.

Argentina race winner Jaime Masia found himself in the lead at the start of the last lap with Dalla Porta slotting into 2nd but he made his way into 1st with only a few corners remaining. As he exited the final corner, Tony Arbolino found himself in the slipstream and slipped past his fellow Italian to take hist first win ahead of Dalla Porta and Masia.

Niccolo Antonelli finished 4th after starting 18th on the grid after a penalty ahead of the Sky VR46 rider of Dennis Foggia after slipping past John McPhee on the final corner. The Scotsman found himself in 6th after the first lap after starting from 17th on the grid, he equalled his best result at Mugello and moved up to 8th in the championship.

Aron Canet continues to lead the championship after finishing 7th but Dalla Porta is only 3 points further back, with Antonelli sitting 13 points off the championship lead.

Tony Arbolino’s win makes him the eleventh different race winner in as many races and proves how competitive the Moto3 class is.

Round 7 – The Catalan Grand Prix comes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in two week time from the 14th – 16th of June.