MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 12 / SEPTEMBER 7-9, 2018
MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT MARCO SIMONCELLI / RIMINI, SAN MARINO
P46
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
I
s racing about common sense and
logic? Or should it be a bit crazy, a mat-
ter of ambitious brinkmanship and risk?
Sunday's race at Misano was a triumph
for the former, as Mr. Sensible, Andrea
Dovizioso, played a precisely judged hand
to take his third win of the season, and
Ducati's second home victory in Italy.
"I did everything perfectly," he said later,
adding that but for a couple of laps when
his lead was vaguely under threat. "I didn't
take risks." He had made it look—well, not
exactly easy—but pretty straightforward.
A bit of the latter proved the opposite,
as his pole-qualifying teammate Jorge
Lorenzo threw away a Ducati one-two with
just two laps to go. He'd managed to get
back in front of the ever-aggressive Marc
Marquez's Repsol Honda and the pair was
notionally closing up on Dovi. But it took
him a little bit over the edge, and he paid
the price.
Second place for Marquez did more
than preserve his record—he has been first
or second at every race so far bar Argen-
tina (penalty) and Mugello (crash). It once
again extended his championship lead, to a
yawning 67 points over new second-placer
Dovizioso, as his former pursuer Valentino
Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) finished a down-
beat seventh at his home race.
Hopes in qualifying that Yamaha had
turned a corner in their worst-ever season
proved ill-founded, with front-row starter
Maverick Vinales lucky to inherit fifth after
Lorenzo's crash, two places and three sec-
onds ahead of his teammate.
Ducati's improving strength—even at cir-
cuits that previously had been problematic—
is proving them the class of the field. Today's
results might have been better still had not
front-row qualifier Jack Miller slipped off out
of fourth in the early laps.
But with six races left, Marquez's quest for
a fifth title in six years is going to take some
Andrea Dovizioso's second
win at home in Italy was
one of his best. Marc
Marquez (93) and Jorge
Lorenzo (99) simply had
no answer for him.
