Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo won a dramatic Gran Premio d’Italia TIM for the third successive year, leading home MotoGP™ championship leader Dani Pedrosa and Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, whilst local hero Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Alvaro Bautista all crashed out of the race.

Whilst Lorenzo made the perfect start by passing Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa in the first turn, Yamaha’s Rossi and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista came together in the fourth corner of lap 1, putting an end to both their races, and shocking the yellow-clad home crowd. They fortunately walked away unscathed, and whilst both were disappointed and clearly annoyed, Race Direction deemed it was no one’s fault and declared it a racing incident.

Back in the race, Pedrosa remained with Lorenzo until just past half distance, when small errors for two laps in a row allowed his teammate Marquez to attack, while Lorenzo put the hammer down, lapping at the highest pace of the race to pull out a healthy buffer. Pedrosa kept Marquez at bay until the 20-year-old went past on the inside of Savelli curve on the 19th lap. Marquez’s hard work was quickly undone in exactly the same place just two laps later, as an unforced error resulted in a fourth crash in three days. It was also the end of his bid to become the first rookie in MotoGP history to claim five rostrum finishes at the start of his premier class career.

Marquez’s crash allowed Pedrosa to retake second place as Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Crutchlow made the podium for the second time in two weeks, becoming the first British rider since 1987 to take back-to-back podium finishes. Stefan Bradl delivered a mature ride to fourth place to equal his career-best result for LCR Honda MotoGP, which had coincidently been achieved at the same race last year. Ducati Team filled positions five to seven, with Dovizioso eventually winning a battle with teammate Nicky Hayden while Michele Pirro raced the GP13 Lab bike to just behind the factory pair.

Aleix Espargaro carried his Power Electronics Aspar CRT bike to its best result yet in eighth spot, with Tech 3’s Bradley Smith achieving ninth despite being in immense pain with an injured wrist and finger. Hector Barbera completed the top ten for Avintia Blusens.

MotoGP™ Race Classification
1- Jorge Lorenzo
SPA  Yamaha  41’39.733
2- Dani Pedrosa
SPA   Honda  +5.400
3- Cal Crutchlow
GBR   Yamaha  +6.412