Valentino Rossi has won the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano which the first win in 2014 for the 35-year-old Italian. The 9-time champion hasn’t won in Italy in five years and the win was a welcome return to the top step.
On the tenth lap, point leader and current world champion, Marc Marquez had a rare crash at Rio corner which handed the win to Rossi. Marquez and Rossi were battling on the first nine laps with Rossi holding every challenge and re-passing Marquez with that Rossi panache.
The only threat after Marquez went down was Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo who finished second on harder front tire option that didn’t pay dividends.
An interesting new story came out of the Misano weekend with the series announcing they were instituting a software freeze at the end of June 2015 to prepare for the new regulation bikes to come. The statement said:
“After that date manufacturers will not be permitted to update their software except for minor bug fixes that might affect safety,” said a statement from the commission.
From then on the current manufacturers will collaborate on developing what is being referred to as the “unified” software for 2016. This will be based on the control ECU used by Open runners.
An exception will be made for returnees Suzuki and Aprilia, both of which will be back in MotoGP next year.
“Manufacturers not currently participating may continue to use and develop their own software throughout 2015 but may also be invited to participate in the development of the unified software,”
The win for Rossi pushes the 2014 title decider back for another race as Marc Marquez still leads handedly in the championship. Rossi’s win moves him just a single point behind Dani Pedrosa. It’s great to see Valentino back on the top step and team Yamaha take the fight to Honda’s Marc Marquez.
| Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valentino Rossi | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 44m14.586s |
| 2 | Jorge Lorenzo | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1.578s |
| 3 | Daniel Pedrosa | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 4.276s |
| 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati Team | Ducati | 5.510s |
| 5 | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 11.771s |
| 6 | Pol Espargaro | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 18.999s |
| 7 | Bradley Smith | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 23.100s |
| 8 | Alvaro Bautista | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | Honda | 36.458s |
| 9 | Cal Crutchlow | Ducati Team | Ducati | 38.480s |
| 10 | Yonny Hernandez | Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | Ducati | 45.878s |
| 11 | Karel Abraham | Cardion AB Motoracing | Honda | 54.765s |
| 12 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Drive M7 Aspar | Honda | 56.775s |
| 13 | Scott Redding | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | Honda | 1m02.734s |
| 14 | Alex de Angelis | NGM Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | 1m13.546s |
| 15 | Marc Marquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1m15.948s |
| 16 | Leon Camier | Drive M7 Aspar | Honda | 1m20.760s |
| 17 | Michael Laverty | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 1m26.422s |
| 18 | Broc Parkes | Paul Bird Motorsport | PBM/Aprilia | 1 Lap |
| 19 | Hector Barbera | Avintia Racing | Avintia/Kawasaki | 1 Lap |
| – | Aleix Espargaro | NGM Forward Racing | Forward Yamaha | Retirement |
| – | Stefan Bradl | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | Retirement |
| – | Danilo Petrucci | IodaRacing Project | ART/Aprilia | Retirement |
| – | Mike Di Meglio | Avintia Racing | Avintia/Kawasaki | Retirement |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
| Pos | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marc Marquez | 289 |
| 2 | Daniel Pedrosa | 215 |
| 3 | Valentino Rossi | 214 |
| 4 | Jorge Lorenzo | 177 |
| 5 | Andrea Dovizioso | 142 |
| 6 | Pol Espargaro | 98 |
| 7 | Aleix Espargaro | 92 |
| 8 | Andrea Iannone | 92 |
| 9 | Stefan Bradl | 74 |
| 10 | Bradley Smith | 74 |
| 11 | Alvaro Bautista | 64 |
| 12 | Scott Redding | 54 |
| 13 | Cal Crutchlow | 47 |
| 14 | Hiroshi Aoyama | 43 |
| 15 | Yonny Hernandez | 38 |
| 16 | Karel Abraham | 33 |
| 17 | Nicky Hayden | 29 |
| 18 | Colin Edwards | 11 |
| 19 | Michele Pirro | 11 |
| 20 | Broc Parkes | 7 |
| 21 | Mike Di Meglio | 4 |
| 22 | Danilo Petrucci | 4 |
Hat tip: AUTOSPORT
