MotoGP Misano: Dovizioso takes victory as Lorenzo crashes out

Dovizioso's win was Ducati's third in succession - the first time the Italian marque has taken a hat-trick since 2008 - as he carved his way from fourth on the grid in the opening laps before setting a pace his opponents were unable to 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 Turn 8 to take command.

By that time, 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.

Lorenzo's crash, allied to Dovizioso's win, enabled the Italian to emerge as Marquez's closest challenger in the championship, albeit the duo split by a sizeable 67 points.

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.

Team-mate 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.

Rounding out the scorers were Aprilia's 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 result

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	27	42m05.426s
2	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	27	2.822s
3	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	27	7.269s
4	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	27	14.687s
5	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	27	16.016s
6	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	27	17.408s
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	27	19.086s
8	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	Suzuki	27	21.804s
9	Alvaro Bautista	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	27	23.919s
10	Johann Zarco	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	27	27.559s
11	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	27	30.698s
12	Franco Morbidelli	MVDS Honda	Honda	27	32.941s
13	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	27	33.461s
14	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	27	35.686s
15	Michele Pirro	Ducati	Ducati	27	35.812s
16	Bradley Smith	KTM	KTM	27	46.500s
17	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	Ducati	27	46.614s
18	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	27	50.593s
19	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 Yamaha	Yamaha	27	55.168s
20	Karel Abraham	Aspar Ducati	Ducati	27	1m02.255s
21	Scott Redding	Aprilia	Aprilia	27	1m09.475s
22	Thomas Luthi	MVDS Honda	Honda	27	1m12.608s
23	Christophe Ponsson	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	26	1 Lap
-	Stefan Bradl	Honda	Honda	17	Retirement
-	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	17	Retirement
-	Xavier Simeon	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	2	Retirement