Valentino Rossi returned to winning ways at his home ground in San Marino MotoGP round at Misano (which is actually in Italy) after runaway championship leader Marc Marquez made a mistake during their one-on-one battle for the lead of the race.
At the start of the race, Rossi and Marquez shot up to second and third places respectively behind pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo. After a couple of changes in their order, the duo passed Lorenzo as the Spaniard struggled to keep upto pace with his hard front tyres.
In clean air, Rossi and Marquez continued to battle for lead of the race until the latter lost the front of the Honda and slid out from second place on 10th lap of the race. The MotoGP championship leader managed to continue with help from some generous marshals but by that time the damage had been done - the Spaniard was already one minute down on the leader and well outside of points. He recovered enough to score the final championship point in 15th place.
With Marquez out of the picture, Rossi took a comfortable victory from teammate Jorge Lorenzo to record Yamaha's first one-two finish of the season. In this process, he also surpassed 5000 MotoGP championship points.
Dani Pedrosa in the Honda was no match to his teammate or the Yamaha pairing but nevertheless managed to take the final spot on the podium.
Another home hero, Andrea Dovizioso, put on a solid drive to finish in fourth place for Ducati - a mere 5.5 seconds behind race winner Valentino Rossi. Andrea Iannone in the #29 Pramac Racing finished fifth ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha riders Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith.
Despite adding just one point to his tally, Marquez is set to wrap up the MotoGP championship in next couple of races, having won 11 of the 13 events held so far. His championship lead currently stands at a mammoth 74 points from teammate Dani Pedrosa, who in turn, is just one point ahead of nine-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi.
MOTO2: THIRD CONSECUTIVE VICTORY FOR RABAT
Championship leader Esteve Rabat took his seventh victory of the season and third in a row at the San Marino Grand Prix, ahead of Marc VDS teammate and championship rival Mika Kallio.
Kallio, who started on pole position, led from start of the race but was reeled in by Rabat with just eight laps to go. Nevertheless, the second place result keeps the Finn in the hunt for the championship with five races to go in the 2014 Moto2 season.
Meanwhile, Johann Zarco in the Air Asia Caterham took a lonely third, ahead of Maverick Vinales and Thomas Luthi.
MOTO3: Rins beats Marquez for victory
Alex Rins took his second successive victory of the season at Moto3 San Marino Grand Prix, after beating his Estrella Galicia teammate Alex Marquez by just 0.042 seconds.
At the start of the race, pole sitter Jack Miller got off the line well from Alex Marquez who has moved up to second place from his fourth place grid spot. Meanwhile, Alex Rins started his charge from third on the grid and passed his teammate Marquez as well as Miller to take the lead of the race on lap 4.
From there on, Rins controlled the field until Marquez passed his countrymen on the penultimate lap of the race. However, the action wasn’t settled yet and Rins tried the same move over Marquez to regain the lead on the final lap to cross the line in first place.
Championship lead Jack Miller slipped dramatically in the opening few laps of the race before recovering enough to take the final spot on the podium. With Marquez finishing second, his lead decreased to just nine points with five races to go.
MOTOGP MISANO RACE CLASSIFICATION (TOP TEN)
1) #46 Valentino Rossi Yamaha
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 Pramac Racing +11.771
6) #44 Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha +18.999
7) #38 Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha +23.100
8) #19 Alvaro Bautista Honda Gresini +36.458
9) #35 Cal Crutchlow Ducati +38.480
10) #68 Yonny Hernandez Pramac Racing +45.878
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