Misano, Italy – Valentino Rossi showed his thousands of home fans that he is still ‘The Doctor’ with a perfectly judged win in the San Marino Grand Prix.
He put Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo firmly in his place (second) and pushed Honda’s Marc Marquez into an uncharacteristic mistake that saw him crash out of second, pick the bike up and rejoin to salvage some pride with a solitary point for 15th.
Gauteng teen Brad Binder, meanwhile, qualified 10th for the Moto3 race, got a decent start and came in at the tail end of a three-way shootout for fourth after a superb ride.
MOTOGP
Rossi made his intentions clear with a flying start from third to second into the first corner, tucked in behind Lorenzo. An early attack from Marc Marquez was quickly dealt with, before he slipped past his team-mate and into the lead.
Marquez relegated Lorenzo to third soon after and set off after Rossi, closing it within half a second until he lost the front end trying to keep up with and went down in Rio corner on lap 10.
From that point the flying Rossi opened up a gap of more than two seconds over Lorenzo, who delivered a typically focused and consistent performance despite riding on his own for most of the race.
He gradually built a cushion of four seconds to Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Ducati lead rider Andrea Dovizioso, who battled for the final podium spot all the way to the line, with Pedrosa in front by a little more than a second when it counted.
Andrea Iannone on a satellite Ducati impressed with another solid result in fifth, while rookie Pol Espargaro put in a superb effort to beat his experienced Yamaha Tech3 team-mate Bradley Smith into sixth by 4.1 seconds.
Honda privateer Alvaro Bautista, Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) and Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) completed the top 10.
Rossi’s 25 points for the win made him the first Grand Prix rider ever to reach 5000 championship points, in a remarkable career that stretches back to 1996. Now 35 years old, he has won 107 Grands Prix – more than any other rider except Giacomo Agostini – and nine world titles.
He is now third in the 2014 title chase with 214 points, just one point behind Pedrosa in second, but a seemingly insurmountable 75 behind Marquez with five races to go.
Lorenzo took 20 points to bring him to 177 in fourth, 35 ahead of Dovizioso in fifth.
MOTO2
Pole man Mika Kallio got a brilliant start, building up a 1.5sec lead by the second lap but Rabat kept his Kalex team-mate in his sights, biding his time and overtaking Kallio with eight laps to go.
Rabat has now taken seven wins in 2014, three of those in consecutive races – and he is in a strong position at the head of the standings with five races remaining. It was Kallio’s ninth podium of the year, however, with a strong run of six consecutive rostrum results keeping him within striking distance of Rabat.
Johann Zarco (Caterham Suter) rode a lonely race to third, two seconds adrift of Kallio at the line and just less than two seconds ahead of fourth placed Maverick Viñales (Kalex).
Thomas Luthi (Suter), Dominique Aegerter (Suter), Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team), Julian Simon (Kalex), Axel Pons (Kalex) and Takaaki Nakagami (Kalex) made up the top 10.
Jonas Folger (Kalex) got a ride-through penalty for failing to drop one position after running off the circuit and finishing 19th after running in seventh.
MOTO3
Despite need a medical check after sustaining heavy bruises on both legs in a crash during the morning’s warm-up session, Alex Rins (Honda) produced an excellent ride to win from team-mate Alex Marquez by just 0.042sec, his second win on the trot strengthening his title credentials.
Championship leader Jack Miller (KTM) was third, a little more than 3.3 sec off th4e leader, his advantage over Marquez now reduced to only nine points with five races to go, with Rins only 11 points further behind.
KTM riders Isaac Viñales and Enea Bastianini, and Mahindra star Binder finished within arm’s length of each other in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, a scant second behind Miller, while Alexis Masbou (Honda), Andrea Migno (Mahindra), Juanfran Guevara (Kalex KTM) and Efren Vazquez (Honda) rounded out the top 10.