Third win in a row for Lorenzo as Marquez crashes out

Author: Oli Rushby Posted: 31 May 2015

Jorge Lorenzo has taken his third successive, dominant victory of the season at Mugello this afternoon, cruising to the win ahead of Andrea Iannone and Valentino Rossi as Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez dramatically crashed out of the late stages. 

Iannone took the holeshot as Marquez got a rocketship start from the fifth row of the grid to be sixth at the first corner. Lorenzo moved into the lead at turn four as the Marquez made further progress into fourth place.

The Repsol Honda man moved into third place at the start of the second lap, before passing Dovizioso for second just a lap later. 

Lorenzo started to pull a gap and by the fifth lap he had a one second advantage over Marquez, who lost out on second place to Andrea Dovizioso before having to defend third place heavily from Iannone. He lost out going wide into the first corner on lap eight, but shot back past his Italian rival almost immediately as Pedrosa closed in on the trio. 

Marquez shot past the Ducatis to re-take second place on lap nine, as Iannone slipped up the inside of his teammate into third. 

Having passed Crutchlow who was holding him up, Rossi began to set his fastest lap of the race as he closed in on the podium battle. It didn’t take the Italian long, he shot past Dovizioso for fifth place on lap 12.

Dovizioso’s home race came to a premature end as he pulled into the pits with technical problems with nine laps go to. 

On lap 16, Marquez passed Iannone for second at Arrabiata 1 with Pedrosa and Rossi closing in. The Spaniard couldn’t hold the position for long though, with Iannone coming straight back. Visibly frustrated, Marquez pushed hard into turn four, losing the front end and dramatically crashing out.

The Italian fans were given reason to scream the next lap as Rossi squeezed past Pedrosa to take third place.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow crashed out on lap 21 at Arrabiata 1, leaving fellow Briton Bradley Smith to move into sixth. 

At the front, Lorenzo had built a lead of 7.5 seconds as Rossi began to drop off fourth-placed Pedrosa.

Lorenzo eventually crossed the line 5.5 seconds ahead after a cheeky wave to the crowd ahead of the injured Andrea Iannone and hometown hero Valentino Rossi.

Pedrosa took fourth ahead of Bradley Smith who had a strong ride to fifth ahead of his teammate Espargaro who rounded out the top six. Vinales was seventh with the Ducatis of Pirro, Petrucci and Hernandez rounding out the top ten.

Lorenzo now trails Rossi by just six points in the championship standings with Dovizioso still third. Marquez sits fifth some 49 points adrift.

2015 Italian Grand Prix: Race Results