MotoGP 2016: Lorenzo pips Marquez in thrilling Italian Grand Prix

Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo takes top spot ahead of Honda's Marc Marquez in a nail-biting final lap duel. Valentino Rossi suffered an engine blow out on lap eight. 

After grabbing pole position in the 6^th round of the MotoGP 2016 season at Mugello, one would have thought that Valentino Rossi had his home grand prix in the bag already. Come race day though, the end results have been completely different, and dare we say a bit shocking, especially if you happen to be a Rossi fan. In a nutshell, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo pipped Honda’s Marc Marquez in a fiercely fought final lap duel as Rossi retired out of the race due to a blown engine.

Lorenzo made his intentions clear at the start. Taking a hole shot from 5^th spot on the grid, Lorenzo was the first to come out of the turn 1 with his teammate Rossi following suit in second. Surprisingly, the other two front row starters – Vinales and Iannone – made a mess while launching their respective machines and couldn’t keep up with the leading group.

Rossi kept Lorenzo within his sights, but on lap 8, the Italian had to retire from the race in unceremonious fashion owing to a blown engine. Once Rossi went off the track, the Mugello crowd fell into utter silence without realizing that there was an even more intense battle brewing for the closing laps of the race - Marquez was starting to catch up with the race leader. The gap between both the riders remained constant until the final 3 laps, when the Honda rider finally decided to get into a serious tussle with Lorenzo. On the final lap, Lorenzo and Marquez swapped positions multiple times, but it was Marquez who emerged out on top in the final corner. However, thanks to Marquez’s slow accelerating Honda, Lorenzo was able to slipstream past his ahead of the Honda rider to take win in the Italian round by just 0.019 seconds!

Behind the duo, Iannone managed to finish on the podium, bringing some much needed relief to the home crowd after Rossi’s untimely dismissal. Dani Pedrosa, though, gave Iannone some headache during the final part of race although couldn’t quite make it to the podium on what was his career’s 250^th GP.

Despite starting from 13^th spot on the grid, Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso finished fifth while Suzuki Vinales also managed to recover some lost ground by finishing 6^th.

2016 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix (22/05/2016)
Autodromo del Mugello Italy – 5.245km, 15 turns

1. Jorge LORENZO(Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA) 41’36.535
2. Marc MARQUEZ(Repsol Honda Team HONDA)41’36.554
3. Andrea IANNONE(Ducati Team DUCATI)Q2 41’41.277s
4. Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team HONDA) 41’41.445
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO(Ducati Team DUCATI) 41’42.791
6. Maverick VIÑALES(Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI) 41’45.205
7. Bradley SMITH(Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA) 41’49.875
8. Danillo PETRUCCI (OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) 41’51.133
9. Aleix ESPARGARO(Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI) 41’55.178
10. Michele PIRRO(OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) 41’58.833
11. Cal CRUTCHLOW(LCR Honda HONDA) 42’4.471
12. Hector BARBERA(Avintia Racing DUCATI) 42’12.247
13. Eugene LAVERTY(Aspar Team MotoGP DUCATI) 42’14.567
14. Stefan BRADL(Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA) 42’16.629
15. Pol ESPARGARO(Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA) 42’36.346
16. Yonny HERNANDEZ(Aspar Team MotoGP DUCATI) 42’40.932

Valentino ROSSI(Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA) DNF

Scott REDDING(OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) DNF

Jack MILLER(Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA) DNF

Alvaro BAUTISTA (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA) DNF

Loris BAZ(Avintia Racing DUCATI) DNF