Race report
MotoGP San Marino GP
Misano MotoGP: Marquez defeats Quartararo in last-lap duel
MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez emerged victorious in the San Marino Grand Prix, seeing off rookie Fabio Quartararo in a breathtaking last-lap battle.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Sep 19, 2019, 11:00 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Quartararo had led every lap of the first 26, but was denied a maiden win by Marquez, who had to pass the Frenchman twice on the final tour.
Poleman Maverick Vinales had maintained the lead off the line, and the Petronas duo of Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli briefly made it a Yamaha 1-2-3.
Marquez, who had started fifth after his qualifying run-in with Valentino Rossi, was up to fourth on the opening lap, and picked off Morbidelli at Turn 8 on the second tour to set out after the leaders.
As the championship leader kept Vinales and Quartararo in his sights, the latter got a superb run on the former out of Turn 10 and edged ahead entering Curvone to take the lead and immediately begin breaking away.
By the time Marquez pulled off an aggressive move on Vinales down the inside of Turn 10 on the following lap, Quartararo was already almost a second up the road - but the Honda man needed just a couple of laps to arrive right behind the rookie.
Yet Quartararo held firm in the lead, the gap between him and Marquez oscillating between one and four tenths for much of the race as the Frenchman soaked up the pressure.
Marquez, however, ramped up his efforts as the contest entered its final three laps, and finally drew alongside Quartararo at the end of the penultimate lap to take the lead into Turn 1.
Quartararo responded with a brave dive down the inside of Turn 4, but Marquez's Honda outdragged the Yamaha on the run up to Quercia, and he was late on the brakes to consolidate the lead.
And while Quartararo kept Marquez in his sights through the next few corners, he had to release the throttle to avoid clattering into the Honda at Turn 14, and was forced to settle for second place.
The victory leaves Marquez with a 93-point lead in the championship, with 150 up for grabs in the remaining six races.
Vinales had slipped to two seconds behind the leading duo after losing first place, and while he kept pace with the pair from the on, he could only close the gap to the race winner down to 1.6 seconds by the finish.
His fellow works rider Valentino Rossi and Quartararo's Petronas teammate Franco Morbidelli made it four Yamahas in the top five.
Having cleared the KTM of Pol Espargaro, Rossi spent several laps behind Morbidelli before lunging down the inside of his protege at Quercia - and while he ran out wide to allow Morbidelli back through, he then got the move done at Turn 14, going on to finish a tenth clear.
Andrea Dovizioso salvaged sixth place in a difficult race for Ducati, while Espargaro - who had started on the front row - was shuffled down to an eventual seventh place.
Suzuki's Joan Mir, making his return from injury, was eighth ahead of the Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller and the works Ducati of Danilo Petrucci.
Aleix Espargaro finished 12th as the sole Aprilia, with Andrea Iannone absent through injury, while Marquez's Repsol Honda squadmate Jorge Lorenzo took 14th.
Suzuki rider Alex Rins ran sixth in the early going, but his progress was stalled when he straightlined Turn 2 in pursuit of Espargaro.
Back on Espargaro's tail, he overtook the KTM rider, only to immediately receive a long-lap penalty and then crashing at Turn 4 before he could serve it.
Also crashing at Turn 4 were Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac) and Miguel Oliveira (Tech 3), while LCR pair Takaaki Nakagami and Cal Crutchlow and Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro likewise crashed - the latter running 10th ahead of Petrucci when he hit the deck.
Race results:
Cla # Rider Bike Laps Time 1 93 Marc Marquez
Honda 27 42'25.163 2 20 Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 27 42'26.066 3 12 Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 27 42'26.799 4 46 Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 27 42'37.823 5 21 Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 27 42'37.937 6 4 Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 27 42'38.907 7 44 Pol Espargaro
KTM 27 42'45.213 8 36 Joan Mir
Suzuki 27 42'47.675 9 43 Jack Miller
Ducati 27 42'51.717 10 9 Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 27 42'56.619 11 5 Johann Zarco
KTM 27 42'57.551 12 41 Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 27 42'59.640 13 53 Tito Rabat
Ducati 27 43'00.488 14 99 Jorge Lorenzo
Honda 27 43'12.410 15 55 Hafizh Syahrin
KTM 27 43'27.443 16 88 Miguel Oliveira
KTM 27 43'32.994 17 17 Karel Abraham
Ducati 27 43'49.829 18 30 Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 26 43'07.607 35 Cal Crutchlow
Honda 22 35'00.485 51 Michele Pirro
Ducati 21 33'42.043 42 Alex Rins
Suzuki 15 23'45.558 63 Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 11 17'35.661 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Misano MotoGP: Marquez leads Vinales in warm-up
Next article Rossi spat provided Marquez with "extra motivation"
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Valentin Khorounzhiy
WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus
WTCR
WTCR
Hungaroring
WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus
Australian GP issues update on nine F1 paddock coronavirus tests
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Australian GP issues update on nine F1 paddock coronavirus tests
Motorsport Games unveils 15 disciplines for 2020
General
General
Motorsport Games unveils 15 disciplines for 2020
Latest news
NASCAR legend Fred Lorenzen first driver diagnosed with CTE after donating brain
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 16 min
NASCAR legend Fred Lorenzen first driver diagnosed with CTE after donating brain
Max Verstappen defends Chris Lulham after online abuse
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 20 min
Max Verstappen defends Chris Lulham after online abuse
Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 1 h
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe