After a week in which riders have been swapping teams for next season, outgoing Ducati rider Andrea Iannone had a horrific start for the home team. He passed Lorenzo and took the lead mid-way through the race at Turn 4.
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Spanish Suzuki rider Maverick Vinales has signed a two-year deal to replace compatriot and reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo at Yamaha from 2017, the team announced on Thursday.
On the last lap, Marquez finally made a pass stick but Lorenzo went back past into Biondetti – not a usual passing place – but Marquez wasn’t done. The Italian, who described his race as a disaster, had to scrap his way back past team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa for third but the little Spaniard wasn’t letting him get away and pushed Iannone all the way to the line.
Rossi’s 53rd career pole in the top category, and second of the season, was his first at the Mugello circuit near Florence since 2008.
“The pace was not very fast so I couldn’t escape as I usually like to”, Lorenzo said afterwards.
Row six sees Cal Crutchow, with Jack Miller and Eugene Laverty, while the seventh row of the grid has Alvaro Bautista, Stefan Bradl and Loris Baz.
Pedrosa and Iannone’s battle also went down to the final lap with Iannone able to win out by 0.168s and return to the podium once again.
During the race Andrea Iannone hit 220.5 miles per hour, setting a new top speed record in the MotoGP World Championship.
Marquez remained close to the lead fight and moved up to second place due to Rossi’s retirement. 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. A mistake from Dovizioso ended his chances of a podium. Jorge did a fantastic job to take over the lead into the first corner starting from the second row of the grid. The record for the best race lap, however, stands with Marc Marquez, who set a 1m 47.639s with SPA Honda in 2013; he won that race, but retired from the race previous year.
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Italy’s Romano Fenati of KTM will start from pole in the Moto3 category, the third of his career beside compatriot Andrea Migno and Malaysian 17-year-old Khairul Idham Pawi, surprise victor this season in Argentina.
