MotoGP Italian Grand Prix: Jorge Lorenzo seals stunning last-lap victory as Valentino Rossi suffers engine agony
As Rossi was forced to retire, Lorenzo and Marc Marquez duelled it out before the Yamaha prevailed on the drag to the finish line
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jorge Lorenzo out-dragged Marc Marquez to win a thrilling Italian Grand Prix in a phenomenal final lap shootout to ensure that fans were not left disappointed after Valentino Rossi suffered an engine failure to take the home favourite out of contention.
A delighted Lorenzo stopped on the cool down lap to take in what had been an incredible victory, with the 29-year-old admitting that even he didn’t believe he could win when Marquez hit the front on the final lap.
“The pace was not very fast so I couldn’t escape as I usually like to,” Lorenzo said afterwards. “I used a lot of energy during the race so maybe Marc had a bit more than me. I thought back to 2005 in 250cc when I passed [Alex] De Angelis to win and I thought maybe I can do the same here.
“It worked and it was an unexpected victory.”
Rossi made the perfect start off the front-row as the Ducato of Andrea Iannone leaped into the air after bogging down, but it was the lightning launch of Lorenzo who led the field into the first corner. Behind, there was a crash involving three riders as Jack Miller, Alvaro Bautista and Loris Baz found themselves on the floor, while Yonny Hernandez was adjudged to have jumped the start.
With famous names such as two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso and former Brazilian footballer Cafu watching on, Rossi had his first run at Lorenzo at the start of the second lap but ran far too deep into turn one and out-braked himself. As Lorenzo swept through back into the lead, Marc Marquez, Bradley Smith – who was up to fourth – and Andrea Dovizioso all followed Rossi’s example, allowing the Suzuki of Aleix Espargaro to move up to fourth behind the recovering Marquez.
Disaster struck for Rossi and the near 100,000 Italians in attendance when his Yamaha engine let go in a dramatic fashion on the tenth lap – the second Yamaha engine to do so on the day after Lorenzo suffered a similar blow-up in the warm-up. His retirement left the crowd stunned, and what had been a ferocious caldron of noise from the Rossi fans immediately went silent, with some even heading for the exits.
Britain’s Scott Redding, who was having an impressive outing in seventh, was forced to pit on the same lap with a problem of his own.
Rossi’s departure left Marquez to take the fight to his compatriot Lorenzo, who by now had a gap of under a second that was quickly shrinking. Like a red flag to a bull, Marquez could smell victory.
Having dropped as far back as 11th after his nightmare start, Iannone had worked his way through the field, benefitted by the withdrawals of Rossi and Redding, and once he hit fourth he could see the rear of his Ducati team-mate Dovizioso. With seven laps remaining, Iannone made his move, and he cleverly took to the outside to force Dovizioso to run deep before cutting back and passing for third, with none of the fireworks of their earlier crash in Argentina being repeated.
Dovizioso fought back a lap later though, and the squabbling allowed the Honda of Dani Pedrosa – starting his 250th Grand Prix race – to catch the pair, though the Ducati battle ended when Dovizioso ran deep at turn one after seeing Iannone go back through on the run to the final corner.
Out in front, Marquez was able to answer everything Lorenzo laid down, but the Honda just lacked the edge it needed to challenge the reigning champion. Marquez had his first run at Lorenzo with four laps to go heading into the turn 10-11 chicane, only to run wide and lose ground on the Yamaha.
Stalking Lorenzo at every corner, Marquez went again at turn one on the penultimate lap, but Lorenzo was proving mighty on the brakes and Marquez could not help but run wide once again. The final time around, Marquez elected not to have a run at Lorenzo at turn one, perhaps deciding that his chances were much better elsewhere around the lap.
It proved to be the case, as Marquez launched his bike down the inside of Lorenzo at turn two to surprise the three-time world champion. Lorenzo wasn’t done yet though, as he stuffed the Yamaha down the inside of Marquez heading to turn 13, but Marquez fought back and led into the final corner. No one had accounted for the grunt of the Yamaha engine though, and he torpedoed past Marquez on the run to the chequered flag to take victory by just 0.019 seconds on a thrilling finish that even the most devout Rossi fan will have appreciated.
Iannone managed to hold off Pedrosa for the final place on the podium, with Dovisioso coming home fifth ahead of a disappointing Maverick Vinales and Smith, who took the top independent spoils.
The result sees Lorenzo extend his lead in the riders’ standings to 12 points over Marquez, with Rossi slipping 47 points behind his Yamaha team-mate.
The Moto2 race was red flagged after four laps when a crash for Xavi Vierge deflated one of the air barriers at turn 14, but when the new quick restart process was implemented, chaos ensued. Five riders were pulled off the grid for missing the one-minute window to leave pit lane, but eventually every rider was taken back to the pits and the restart was delayed.
Once the race finally resumed, reigning champion Johann Zarco came from the third row to challenge Lorenzo Baldassarri for the lead after Britain’s Sam Lowes made a slow start from pole. Zarco exchanged places with Baldassarri a number of times before hitting the front on the final lap and taking victory by 0.030 seconds ahead of Baldassarri, with Lowes coming home in third.
In Moto3, championship leader Brad Binder took a nail-biting third consecutive victory in a frantic race that saw the top five finish within 0.077 seconds of each other after a 21-bike duel for the lead. In one of the greatest races seen in Grand prix history, the lead changed multiple times each lap, but Binder hit the front at the start of the final lap and was able to gap the rest of the field to maintain the lead to the finish line, despite four other bikes closing in on him rapidly.
17-year-old Fabio Di Diannantonio took his first points finish in just his seventh Moto3 race by taking second, with Mahindra’s Francesco Bagnaia holding on to third by just 0.006 seconds.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments