MotoGP Mugello – Perfect Lorenzo wins for the first time with Ducati

Bruno Gomes

June 3, 2018

Jorge Lorenzo might be looking for another team for next year, but he finally got his win with Ducati

With his future still unknown and almost for sure away from Ducati, and after being criticized by many, Jorge Lorenzo showed today what he is capable by dominating the entire MotoGP race in Mugello.

The Spanish rider won with more than 6 seconds over Andrea Dovizioso, making a Ducati 1-2 result at their home race in front of thousands of Italian fans who also got to see Valentino Rossi finish in the podium with a third position on the Movistar Yamaha bike.

From the beginning of the race Jorge Lorenzo got in front and never saw anyone again. Rossi still tried to put pressure on the Ducati rider but the three-time MotoGP champion never made a mistake, and lap after lap, Lorenzo got away with the lead.

Behind him Andrea Dovizioso recovered a lot of places after the first couple of laps, and easily got himself into second, making the bet of Ducati’s fantastic top speed on the main straight of Mugello. “Desmo” Dovi also tried to stay with Lorenzo, but he also couldn’t keep up with his teammate and had to settle for second.

Andrea Dovizioso finished second making a Ducati 1-2 in Mugello

Valentino Rossi started the race in “pole position” after beating the circuit record in qualifying, but a wrong choice of front tyre, too hard according to Rossi, meant that in the first part of the race he couldn’t push too much without risking a crash. So the Italian Yamaha rider had to battle it out with Andrea Iannone and Alex Rins, both on Ecstar Suzuki bikes, and also with Danilo Petrucci on the Ducati Desmosedici GP18 from the Pramac team.

In the end Rossi managed to escape from the group and he still tried to beat Dovizioso until the finish line, but it was too late and the nine-time world champion came home with a third place finish in Mugello, much for the delight of his fans that painted the Mugello track with yellow.

Valentino Rossi got his third podium of the season and climbed to second in the championship

As for Hafizh Syahrin (Monster Yamaha Tech3), the Malaysian had a good race, and after a good warm-up session this morning, he continued to improve his performance during the MotoGP race.

Syahrin got four more points to his account this rookie season in MotoGP, finishing in 12th after a great battle with Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Ducati) and Bradley Smith (Red Bull KTM). The three crossed the line with just thousands of a second between them, but the Malaysian showed the strength necessary to come out on top of this battle.

Hafizh Syahrin put in another solid performance in Mugello, and gets 4 points with a 12th position

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) crashed in the early moments of the race while in second and behind Lorenzo, and although he returned to the race, he couldn’t do better than 16th. With this result, Marquez still leads the championship with 95 points, and is now followed by Valentino Rossi in second with 72, while Maverick Viñales follows close in third and with 67 points.

Hafizh Syahrin is 16th in the championship standings with 17 points.

In Moto2, Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira gave Red Bull KTM Ajo their first win of the 2018 season by showing great skills on his KTM machine. Oliveira started the race in 11th, but after the race start he was already 5th in the first corner!

He then kept his cool and stayed in the front of the race, and when Mattia Pasini (Italtrans) crashed while in the lead, Miguel Oliveira saw that this could be his chance to finally win this season. But the KTM rider didn’t have his work cut out for him!

He still needed to beat Francesco Bagnaia (SKY VR46) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Pons HP40) to get the win, and with Joan Mir (EG o.o Marc VDS) also staying with the front group, Oliveira had to fend them off one at a time.

Miguel Oliveira won for the first time in 2018 and cuts Francesco Bagnaia lead in the championship to just 13 points!

On the last lap Baldassarri got in front, but a big wobble from his rear tyre made him lose momentum and that was the opportunity Miguel Oliveira needed to get the lead and from then on he just avoided any mistake to cross the finish line in first, followed by Baldassarri and Joan Mir who beat championship leader Bagnaia in the fight for the last place in the podium.

Khairul Idham Pawi (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) finished the race in 18th position, a race where there was no less than 12 riders crashing.

In the Moto2 championship standings, Francesco Bagnaia still leads but saw his lead reduced to just 13 points over Miguel Oliveira, with Lorenzo Baldassarri assuming the third place in the standings after a great home race.

In Moto3, Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini) took a fantastic win in Mugello and gained a bit of momentum in the title fight after two races where he didn’t finish. Martin got the win with a classic three-way photo finish, crossing the line just thousandths of a second in front of home heroes Marco Bezzecchi (Redox Prüstel GP) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini).

Jorge Martin won the Moto3 race in Mugello, after a great race

Malaysian Adam Norrodin (Petronas Sprinta Racing) crashed from the race and had to retire, so he gets no points from Mugello, but hopes to bounce back in a couple of weeks in Barcelona.

The Moto3 standings show Marco Bezzecchi in first with 83 points, Jorge Martin second with 80, and Fabio Di Giannantonio is third with 75. Adam Norrodin maintains his total of 16 points and the 19th place in the standings.