MotoGP

Franco Morbidelli came to win the Misano Grand Prix to claim his first MotoGP victory while his Petronas Yamaha teammate, Fabio Quartararo retired from the race after crashing twice. It was a dramatic race as Franco Morbidelli started second on the grid as he went ahead to lead Yamaha Factory team’s Valentino Rossi through the first corner. The pole-sitter Maverick Vinales resulted to third and Quartararo fifth as the race progressed. Morbidelli’s win was unexpected in the 6th stage of the 2020 MotoGP season with the season becoming more unpredictable, Morbidelli being the fourth first-time winner to win in 2020 season alone. However the performance by the rider was superb throught the race. ndeed, Fabio Quartararo and  Maverick Vinales the only rider to start on a hard rear tyre – fluffed their chances at the start when they allowed Ducati’s Jack Miller between themselves and Morbidelli, plus Valentino Rossi out front. With Vinales taking time to get his tyres up to performance, Quartararo became bottled up behind him initially but having finally passed his stablemate on seven, dropped his Petronas SRT Yamaha when he ran wide at Turn 4. The crestfallen Frenchman soon pitted and returned to track, only to fall again almost straight away on cold tyres on a veritable day to forget for the title contender. Up front, Rossi tracked Morbidelli during the initial laps, but a new lap record from the 2017 Moto2 champion allowed him to put the air he needed to start pushing on. By contrast, Rossi found himself being swallowed by Alex Rins and Pecco Bagnaia behind, the pair having relieved Vinales earlier before quickly catching and dispatching a fading Miller ahead of them.  However, a steely Rossi wouldn’t give up second place without a fight, the fairly evenly matched Yamaha and Suzuki riders line astern but never looking that likely to swap positions. As such, Bagnaia – in his first race back since breaking his leg at Brno – would wait no longer as he streamed up the inside of Rins at the fast Turn 11 to move into third with eight laps remaining. Unlike the more hesitant Rins, Bagnaia wasted no time in getting the better of Rossi – his VR46 rider academy mentor – repeating the same move at Turn 11 on the very next lap to nose the Pramac Racing Ducati into second position. Their feuding would allow Morbidelli – at times 3secs clear of the pack – the opportunity to ease off in the closing stages, crossing the line to take an emotional maiden victory in his third season of MotoGP competition.  He joins team-mate Quartararo,Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira in notching up maiden wins in just the six races of the 2020 MotoGP season alone. Behind them, Bagnaia visibly faded as fatigue no doubt set in but did just enough to collect second place for his first MotoGP podium, in so doing likely guaranteeing his promotion to the factory Ducati team in 2021. Just adrift of him on the line though was a brilliant Joan Mir, who after losing time trying to overtake Miller, managed to catch the podium-contesting group before planting a superb pass on Rins into the first corner of the final lap. With momentum on his side, Mir did was Rins couldn’t by slicing up the inside of Rossi at Turn 5 in one of the moves of the season to snatch a brilliant third place. As a result, Rossi had to make do with fourth, just denied the chance of a 200th grand prix podium at his home race. Rins was left fifth, no doubt frustrated at not taking his opportunities, while a perplexed Vinales was left down in sixth, his hard tyre only coming into strength late on as he set his fastest time in the closing laps. With Quartararo down and out, bizarrely it means Andrea Dovizioso is the new 2020 MotoGP World Championship leader despite barely featuring in the race and finishing well down in seventh but notching up useful points towards what is becoming an unconventional title bid. Takaaki Nakagami maintained his record as the only rider to finish every race this season inside the top ten with a charging ride from 14th to eighth, getting the better of a fading Miller in ninth and Pol Espargaro, the best KTM in tenth. Fellow KTM riders Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder trailed in 11th and 12th, while Aleix Espargaro, Iker Lecuona and Johann Zarco completed the points’ paying positions.

Yamaha Factory racing rider Maverick Vinales smashed the Misano lap record to claim the pole position for the 2020 San Marino MotoGP as Petronas Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo took the second and third pole positions. In the qualifying session that expectations were high that Yamaha will continue its dominance, Vinales unbelievably smashed Jorge Lorenzo’s fastest lap record of 1m31.629s made back in 2018, by recording 1m31.411s leading a yamaha 1-2-3-4 in the second qualifying session. Maverick Vinales had earlier on set a pace of 1m32.130s, but it was quickly subdued by his teammate Valentino Rossi. The 25-year-old FP3 pacesetter held provisional pole for all of 30 seconds, as Quartararo concluded the opening run of Q2 fastest of all with a 1m31.791s. Vinales then headed out for his second run and returned to top spot with a 1m31.787s with just under five minutes remaining to the conclusion of the session. Franco Morbidelli fired in a 1m31.723s to take over provisional pole on the 2019 Yamaha bike but the lead was short-lived. On the other hand, Vinales guided his works team to record 1m31.411s claiming his second pole of the season and back to back Saturday successes at Misano. The Spaniard went ahead to set off the air bag in his leathers during his animated celebrations. Morbidelli did his best qualifying result of the year after holding the second position and will be starting next to his teammate Quartararo in the front row. Valentino Rossi got the 4th position missing Quartararo by only 0.086 seconds. Pramac’s Jack Miller rounded off the top five as his teammate Francesco Bagnaia came 6th, having only 0.002 seconds splitting the two riders. The first Suzuki rider, Alex Rins was 7th as his teammate Joan Mir followed after running off track On the Rio corner around turn 4 as Andrea Dovizioso took the 9th position as the first Ducatti. Avintia Racing Johann Zarco rounded the top ten. Pol Espargaro held the 11th position despite passing his Q1, but the rider had experienced a crash at turn 15 which affected his performance. KTM Tech 3 rider Miguel Oliveira took the 12th place also being another rider who had quite good performance in Q1. Aprilia’s rider Alex Espargaro took pos 13 as Takaaki Nakagami was the top Honda rider holding the 14th position as his teammate Crutchlow retired due to his recently operated arm. Danilo Petrucci will start 15th ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and Avintia’s Tito Rabat. The grid will be completed by a disappointed Iker Lecuona (Tech3), Honda’s Stefan Bradl, Bradley Smith (Aprilia) and the sister factory team Honda of Alex Marquez.

Valentino Rossi gave his limited number of fans allowed to attend the Misano MotoGP a reason to celebrate as he topped the third free practice of the San Marino MotoGP. This was a big event for Yamaha Factory rider as this was his hometown. The 41-year-old took his time perfectly on the track as he avoided several yellow flags around the circuit following a series of crashes and ended up recording a time of 1m 38.816s on a lap a few moments before the close of the session. He was brandishing a special helmet bearing the writtings “46g of Valentino Viagra” as he led a Yamaha 1-2-3 as the manufacturer exhibited its dominance on the track ahead of the afternoon practice session. Rossi’s teammate Maverick Vinales recorded a time of 1m31.936s which was just 0.075 seconds slower than Valentino as the other teammate Fabio Quartararo came in third recording a time 1m 31.961s. Pramac’s rider jack Miller recorded the biggest improvement between sessions as he moved up to fourth position, though this didn’t help his cause as he was one of three riders who crashed in the final five minutes after the Australian suffered a fast low-side at the final corner.  Cal Crutchlow was declared unfit to race by the doctors after his arm had a major swell after undergoing the right hand pump operation, he was in for the Friday’s practice session but fluid build-up in his arm saw him retire from the session and will not be on the grid for the San Marino MotoGP. Both Suzuki Ecstar riders, Alex Rins and Joan Mir came in fifth and sixth respectively as Francesco Bagnaia came an impressive seventh as he is currently on crutches. Ducatti’s Johann Zarco came in eighth as his teammate Andrea Dovizioso came tenth making it 4 Ducattis heading for Q2, Yamaha will also have Franco Morbidelli in the afternoon Q2 as he came in 9th in the session. KTM did not have a good time in the session as both of its riders, Pol Espargaro and Iker Lecuona ruined their afternoon ticket for Q2 after crashing, Espargaro was making good progress but his KTM laid him off turn 12 eventuall giving him 11th place. Aprilia’s Bradley Smith also crashed but was able to see off the last two Repsol Hondas which came 19th and 21st.

Fabio Quartararo topped San Marino GP FP2 at Misano ending the Friday session as the best overall as Yamaha and KTM filled eight of the top nine positions in the practice session. Quartararo led a 1-2 Petronas Yamaha as his teammate Franco Morbidelli came in second by a tenth of a second . The frenchman had an impressive 45-minute long session as he improved on his own lap times but all eyes were on the Yamaha Factory rider Maverick Vinales who was the FP1 pace setter and the duel was on for the top spot. The battle was hot between the two racers as they traded places in the beginning of the session but Team Ecstar Suzuki rider Joan Mir stopped the party as he took P1 on his Suzuki machine recording a time of 1m33.236s just 0.134 seconds faster than Quartararo. Mir’s teammate at Suzuki Ecstar also did an impressive job after he snatched the leadrship from Mir by recording a lap time of 1m33.015s giving him a two tenths of a second from his teammate. Brand Binder who is the Czech GP was the fastest but as his session was coming to a close he crashed around turn 6 after sliding onto the gravel on his KTM, this ended his session as he did not get back to the track. It was an encouraging session for both Yamaha and KTM as their four-strong each armada proved difficult to penetrate in FP2, with Pol Espargaro going third quickest on the factory RC16, but only just ahead of the impressive Iker Lecuona on the sister Tech 3 bike, the Spaniard consistently bouncing towards the top of the timesheets during the session before ending up in fourth. Franco Morbidelli put a time of 1m32.367s as Local hero Valentino Rossi completed the top five on the second factory Yamaha, Vinales ultimately slipping to sixth behind his team-mate as the session came to a close. Danilo Petrucci saved some honour for his official Ducati squad with the seventh quickest effort, while Binder fell to eighth ahead of Austrian GP victor Miguel Oliveira. Aleix Espargaro completed the top ten for Aprilia, the Spaniard inching ahead of Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.009.

After experiencing 3 disappointing races, the 2020 MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo will be returning to Misano for the San Marino Grand Prix this weekend hoping to widen his slender lead at the top of MotoGP standings. Currently he leads the championship by only 3 points having 70 points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who has 67 point being the second in the standings. This comes as six-time champion Marc Marquez being out of the championship as he is recovering from a broken arm after crashing during the opening of the race. Fabio Quartararo finished second in the 2019 San Marino Grand Prix just behind Marquez and went ahead to finish 5th in the overall standings for the 2019 MotoGP being quite a good performance since it was his rookie year. “Misano is one of my favourite circuits because it has a little bit of everything, slow corners, fast corners and switching from left to right…I’m curious to see how it works with the new asphalt and if the conditions will have changed a lot since last year.” Said the 21-year-old frenchman who rides for the Yamaha satellite team. Quartararo won the opening two rounds in Jerez but has failed to make to the podium since, allowing Dovizioso and the Ducatis as well as the Suzukis, KTMs and the other Yamahas to close the points-gap in the overall standings. San Marino Grand Prix will see over 10,000 spectators attending at the Marco Simoncelli circuit to see whether Quartararo will gain back his ‘fly’

The LCR Honda Castrol rider has confirmed via graphic Instagram pictures that he has undergone a right arm pump surgery. This is the second time this season that crutchlow has undergone surgery. The first crash that led to the first surgery happened during the warm up in the Spanish GP when he crashed fracturing his left scaphoid and just a week later Crutchlow mentioned he was experincing problems with the arm pump in his right hand. This problem saw him pit in Andalucia but he later got back to the track. These problems have greatly affected the rider in his pursuit for the championship this year. The 34-year-old underwent the surgery ahead of the first round of Misano Grand Prix as he is set to undergo a fitness test on Thursday afternoon to be decrared fit for the sixth round of MotoGP World Championship

Petronas Yamaha SRT has denied rumours and speculations that they are holding talks with Andrea Dovizioso who is the outgoing Ducatti rider, to join their team for the 2021 season. This is while they are seeming to have a stalemate with nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi who says he is ready to sign for the team. The Dovizioso rumours were dismissed by the Petronas Yamaha SRT boss Razlan Razali who took to social media to deny the allegations and rumours that they were holding talks with Dovizioso who is currenly seeking for a ride for the 2021 season after disclosing tha he will be parting ways with the Ducatti team at the end of the season. “Setting the record straight, we are not considering Dovi at all for 2021.” The Yamaha boss stated. The rumours had been going on for a couple of weeks but as well the rumours could just be a tactic to to rush Valentino Rossi and the Yamaha team to put the pen on paper for the 2021 season. There were speculations however that Dovizioso will be in the 2021 MotoGP season after he announced at a redbull event celebrating AlphaTauri’s Formula 1 win at Monza that he will be fighting for the championship come 2021. Well, this seems highly unlikely since the only remaining slots for the MotoGP 2021 are only Aprilia and Petronas Yamaha without considering Ducatti. Aprilia confirmed that they can’t afford Dovizioso as he is not ready to drop his asking price just to get a ride for 2021. There are speculations that there will be a major announcement this weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix as there are rumours that Valentino Rossi will be confirming his future in MotoGP after the race in his homeground. The contract delays with the Yamaha SRT have not only been evident due to finances but also the attempts to secure positions in the new team for his loyal crew. The veteran champion also requests for a full-factory specification bike besides a considerable salary. Yamaha on the other side pledged to support Valentino Rossi for 2021 even as the replaced him with Fabio Quartararo.

On August 15th, just a day before the Austrian grand prix Andrea Dovizioso made a shocking announcement that he was going to be parting ways with Ducatti team. The union that lasted for seven years did not rather end well as the rider said “There were no more conditions”. The 34-year-old went on to win the cup in Austria. Rumours have been going around on Andrea Dovizioso joining KTM Tech 3 as the Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal shot down the rumours that Andrea Dovizioso was going to replace Iker Lecuona who is a rookie in the team. Andrea Dovizioso had been asked out by the KTM team earlier on in the year but his price was quite high, even putting into consideration that the 2020 KTM RC16 proved to be very good this year. A similar price issue could have led to his ouster from the Ducatti team. Herve Poncharal(KTM Tech 3 boss) said he has not yet given up on the young rider who he believes is a star in the making. The Tech 3 boss has a very good reputation in spotting young talent, and Iker Lecuona proves it. “We told him all year that his job this year is to learn, We have Brad, Pol, and Miguel(Iker Lecuona’s teammates) and his job isn’t too compete with them,” Poncharal said. “He was only 19-years-old when he started testing, Of course, the first race in Jerez he stopped because of the heat, and I told him he needed to train more. The second race a stupid crash and I wasn’t angry, but I was unhappy.” “But even then Mike Leitner [works KTM team principal] was telling me that they could see on the data how fast he was, and it’s easier to calm down a fast rider than make a slow rider fast. We arrived in Brno and he did a perfect weekend, tried to pass Mir and made a mistake braking on the bumps and crashed and took Mir with him – and I thought ‘oh my god, three races and no finishes.” Herve added. “Then the media started to say that he needs to be better, that they’re going to kick him out for Dovi, we didn’t want to put him under too much pressure though, he went to Austria and he finished ninth, I was so happy. You can see his riding style is incredible too, and in the second race with more confidence it was coming you could see how close he was to Brad and Pol.” At the end the biggest mystery of where Andrea Dovizioso will land for 2021 season is still on, its believed there are talks with APrilia but finances might be an issue as the cant match with Ducatti and KTM. There are also news going round that Petronas Yamaha team may have reached out to Dovizioso and also securing in Valentino Rossi but tend to have problems in finalising the 9 time world champion.

Alpinestars have broken down data from Vinales Sunday near disaster during the MotoGP of Styria, in Austria which saw the 25-year-old jumping off his bike on lap 16 due to brake failure. The bike slammed into the air fence bursting into flames as he slid along the track into the gravel. Alpinestars have broken down the data of the incident which saw the Yamaha rider come out unscathed. A close look at the information shows that the rider was travelling at 218 km/h when he made a decision to jump off the bike as the built-in airbags deployed milliseconds before initial impact protecting the catalan as he hit the tarmac at over 20g. Vinales registered 23.45g while sliding along the tarmac which was quickly followed by another heavy impact which was well over 20g, as he continued to slide for another 4.8 seconds before slowing down to a tumble for 1.9 seconds. The airbag technology in the suit highly contributed to the safety of the Yamaha rider because he was immediately able to get back on his own feet. This was the second scary incident that the Monster Energy rider had been involved in, the first being a week prior as he was lucky to avoid  being hit by a flying motorcycle in the Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco crash.