The 2020 MotoGP season is proving to be one of the best world championship title fights on record, with last weekend’s round at Misano yielding a sixth different winner in seven races. At the Gran Premio Tissot dell’Emilia Romagna e della Riviera di Rimini, Maverick Vinales of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP emerged victorious after Francesco Bagnaia of Pramac Racing riding a Ducati Desmoesedici crashed seven laps from the end, handing victory the Yamaha rider.
While there were no massive incidents with flying motorcycles like in Styria, the racing at Misano was no less dramatic with Fabio Quartararo of Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team handed a three-second penalty for a track limit infringement, dropping him from his third place finish to fourth. This meant the eventual podium winners were Joan Mir of Team Suzuki Ecstar and Pol Espargaro of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing in second and third, respectively, with Vinales on the top step.
Mir put in a sterling performance for his second place finish with a daring overtaking manoeuvre on Quartararo three laps from the finish whilst both riders were chasing Espagaro. On the next lap Quartararo followed suit, leaving Espargaro to struggle with tyre issues on his KTM.
Honda, missing their star rider Marc Marquez, had to contend with Takaaki Nakagami of privateer team LCR Honda Idemitsu coming in sixth, his best MotoGP finish ever. In doing so, Nakagami beat factory team rider Alex Marquez (Marc Marquez younger brother) of Repsol Honda Team who came in seventh just 0.8 of a second behind Marquez.
Australian Jack Miller, riding for Pramac Ducati, started strongly, grabbing the hole shot ahead of Vinales. However, his efforts came to naught as a freak technical fault where Miller’s Desmosedici sucked Quartararo’s discarded visor tear-off into the air intake brought a halt to his race.
In the championship standings, Andrea Dovizioso stands on top of the table with 84 points, followed by Quartararo and Vinales jointly tied with 83 points. The lead trio is followed closely by Mir with 80 points, leaving the MotoGP championship table top four separated by just five points, meaning the trophy is anyone’s game at this point with seven races left in the calendar.
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“..dropping him (Fabio Quartararo) from his second place finish to fourth”
“Mir put in a sterling performance for his second place finish with a daring overtaking manoeuvre on Quartararo three laps from the finish whilst both riders were chasing Espagaro”
How can Quartararo finished second when Mir overtook him? He was third, and with 3s penalty demoted him to 4th.
Thanks for spotting the error. A correction has been made.
Stupid auto-correct. :-)