Misano MotoGP: Dovizioso beats Marquez to win, Lorenzo crashes

Dovizioso scored Ducati's third successive race win - the first time the Italian marque has taken a hat-trick since 2008 - after scything his way from fourth on the grid in the opening laps and then setting a pace his adversaries couldn't match.

Lorenzo and Marquez managed to close the gap in the latter stages until the former slid out at the Turn 8 left-hander on the penultimate lap, which left Dovizioso with a clear run to victory.

Poleman Lorenzo hung onto the lead in the opening sequence of corners ahead of fellow front-row starter Jack Miller, as Marquez jumped to third ahead of Dovizioso.

But by the end of the lap Dovizioso had cleared both Marquez and Miller to move into second, and on the sixth lap of 27 he eased past Lorenzo on the run down to the Turn 8 left-hander to assume command.

By that time, Pramac Ducati man Miller had crashed out of what had become fourth, leaving the leading trio with a significant gap over the rest.

Dovizioso's lead was hovering at less than a second until he set a new fastest lap on lap nine, and five laps later his advantage had grown to nearly two seconds.

Marquez and Lorenzo, engaged in a thrilling scrap over second, edged back towards Dovizioso in the final five laps but the Italian was able to stabilise his gap and finally take the chequered flag by 2.8s after Lorenzo's crash.

Behind Marquez, LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow - who ran a lonely fourth for most of the race - was promoted to the final podium spot, a further 4s down on Marquez, followed by Suzuki man Alex Rins.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales failed to make the most of his front-row starting spot, slipping to fifth on the opening lap and ultimately ending up in the same position.

Teammate Valentino Rossi had a similarly indifferent run to seventh behind the second works Honda of Dani Pedrosa.

Andrea Iannone (Suzuki), Alvaro Bautista (Nieto Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) completed the top 10.

Danilo Petrucci (Pramac) was handed a 1.1-second penalty for corner-cutting on his way to 11th, ahead of privateer Honda pair Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS) and Takaaki Nakagami (LCR).

Rounding out the scorers were Aprilia man Aleix Espargaro and Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro, while Lorenzo remounted to finish 17th - one place ahead of Miller.

The other retirees were Xavier Simeon (Avintia Ducati) and Stefan Bradl (Honda), both crashing out, while KTM's Pol Espargaro was forced to retire a little beyond half-distance.

Debutant Christophe Ponsson (Avintia) finished a lapped 23rd.

Race results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	42'05.426
2	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	2.822
3	35	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	7.269
4	42	Alex Rins	Suzuki	14.687
5	25	Maverick Viñales	Yamaha	16.016
6	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	17.408
7	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	19.086
8	29	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	21.804
9	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	23.919
10	5	Johann Zarco	Yamaha	27.559
11	9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	30.698
12	21	Franco Morbidelli	Honda	32.941
13	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Honda	33.461
14	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	35.686
15	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	35.812
16	38	Bradley Smith	KTM	46.500
17	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	46.614
18	43	Jack Miller	Ducati	50.593
19	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Yamaha	55.168
20	17	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1'02.255
21	45	Scott Redding	Aprilia	1'09.475
22	12	Thomas Luthi	Honda	1'12.608
23	23	Christophe Ponsson	Ducati	1 Lap
Ret	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	10 Laps
Ret	44	Pol Espargaro	KTM	10 Laps
Ret	10	Xavier Simeon	Ducati	25 Laps