The Italian Andrea Dovizioso raced to victory this past Sunday at the San Marino GP after dominating the race from start to finish. The Ducati driver breaks the unlucky strike of his Scuderia at Misano where they didn’t win for 11 years since Casey Stoner in 2007. 

Marc Marquez came in second after his fellow Spaniard, who started from pole, crashed two laps before the finish line. As the runner-up, Marquez widens his lead in the standings to 67 points.

No unnecessary risks for Marquez

It was a great start for both Ducati but Dovizioso performed an impeccable race. At lap six the champion escaped to the first position after passing team-mate Lorenzo. Soon he had built up a two second advantaged, which he managed perfectly until the end:

“I’m happy to have beaten Marquez and to win here where I had never managed to before,” -Dovizioso said – “I really enjoyed it today, except when I saw that Jorge was starting to push. I was feeling at one with my Ducati. “Everything worked great, we have nothing new, it’s just a mix that improves race performance, a mix of fluidity and explosiveness.” 

For a while, it seemed as if the Ducati were going to get a 2-1 in home soil but unfortunately, the Spaniard crashed just before the end after spending the whole race fighting for the second position with Marquez.

With Lorenzo out of the picture, Marquez took second and Cal Crutchlow raised to the third position. Marquez, the current leader, acknowledged that, despite always aiming for the win, there are times in which being conservative pays off as taking unnecessary risks could jeopardise his advantage in the standings. He also admitted that he could not keep up with the Ducatis and that he was kept ‘on the limit’ throughout the race:

“When I saw that Dovi was going away, I tried to be behind Jorge, to attack him in the end,”  Marquez declared after the race. “But honestly speaking I was on the limit, I was pushing too much in some areas – but then, when you never give up, sometimes you get something” (…) “And this time we got those points, we arrived here 59 points in front, we leave Misano 67 points [in front].” 

Valentino Rossi only managed the seventh position to the disappointment of all his attending fans. He was also replaced by Dovizioso as number two in the standings. The Yamaha veteran is now three points behind Dovi in third position. His team-mate Viñales was fifth which means this is the 22nd winless race for Yamaha, the worse streak in the history of the Scuderia.

By T.C. | Foto: Reuters