MotoGP 2015 San Marino Results

Bruce Allen
by Bruce Allen

Lorenzo title hopes damaged as Rossi extends championship lead

As Round 13 of the 2015 MotoGP championship got underway today, the racing gods were thoroughly bored, watching Jorge Lorenzo put another old fashioned Misano beatdown on rival teammate Valentino Rossi and just plain rival Marc Marquez. So they decided to have a little fun, turning on the rain around Lap 6 and turning it off again during Lap 16, forcing a double flag-to-flag affair for the first time in recent memory. When the laughs died down, Marquez had a win, two Brits finished on the podium, Rossi extended his championship lead, and Lorenzo was in the medical center getting x-rays.

The weekend practice sheets led us to believe that today’s race would be another Lorenzo/Marquez wrestling match, and that Marquez, and the world, would be in trouble if Lorenzo got away early. Which is exactly what happened, Lorenzo and his Yamaha M1 going metronomic in the lead halfway through Lap 1. The expected parade dissolved during Lap 6, when the rain flag came out.

The practice sessions foretold a dominant Jorge Lorenzo race at Misano. Unfortunately, for Jorge, the weather followed a different script.

Most of the riders entered the pits at the end of the lap, leaving the three Alien leaders gingerly pushing their machines over the new and increasingly-soaked racing surface, upon which they had had exactly zero minutes of wet practice. At the end of Lap 7 the three leaders entered the pits, jumped on their wet bikes, and headed back out. Let the record show that factory Ducati #2 Andrea Dovizioso led the race at the end of Lap 7 while Tech 3 Yamaha’s Bradley Smith led after eight, the first MotoGP lap he has led in his career.

With conditions changing from dry to wet to dry again, pit stop strategy played the most important role in the race.

There is no communication between riders and their garages during races, meaning that in flag-to-flag affairs it is solely up to the rider to decide when to change bikes. On a day like today, with the weather playing tricks, it was the timing of the pit stops that ultimately decided the finish order. Mercifully, it was not another of those the-race-is-decided-on-Saturday things; today, the race was decided on track, specifically inside the helmets of the riders.

Decisions, Decisions

Thus far, we know the bulk of the field changed at the end of Lap 6, the three leaders waiting until a very pivotal Lap 7, in which Mark VDS Brit Scott Redding had a small lowside which convinced him to change to his wet bike and led to an almost-three minute lap. Redding changed back to slicks on Lap 14. Parenthetically, Marquez went back to his dry bike on Lap 18 while the two factory Yamahas, rubber flying off their front tires like shrapnel, ignored their pit boards and stayed out, Lorenzo finally making the change on Lap 21 and Rossi on Lap 22.

Ordinarily, an incident like this would spell doom for a racer. At Misano, Scott Redding rebounded to earn his first career MotoGP podium.

The biggest decision of the day, however, was a non-decision. Smith, who has shown steady improvement each year during his MotoGP tenure, never did enter the pits and rode the entire race on slicks. This led to some interesting lap times in the middle of the race (2:12 on Lap 14) but saved him an immense amount of time not changing bikes and strolling down pit lane twice. In fact, as evidenced by the startling fourth place finish today of Loris Baz on the Forward Yamaha, it would be interesting to compare today’s finishing order with the number of laps each non-Alien rider spent on their wet bikes. Surely Smith, Redding and Baz were the most daring riders today, spending the bulk of a damp Sunday afternoon on slicks.

Bradley Smith had one of the most daring performances of the season, completing the entire race on slick tires for a second-place finish.

Late in the Day

And so it was that Jorge Lorenzo, who can be excused for having expected a bit of a cakewalk today, started Lap 22 from pit lane on cold slicks, trailing a bunch of riders, amongst them Rossi, who had yet to pit. And so it was that Lorenzo, pushing to the max trying to chase down the Italian, lost the front in Turn 15, got launched into thin air, and followed his destroyed bike on a painful high-speed fustercluck through the gravel, his day, and possibly his season, lying in ruins around him. He pounded his right hand into the gravel twice in sheer frustration. Later, it was reported he was in the medical center getting x-rays on, among other things, his right hand.

Jorge Lorenzo chose poorly when to switch bikes and crashed out trying to catch up on cool tires. But you can’t really blame him for taking chances trying to make up ground in the championship race.

Lorenzo’s string of podiums at Misano, intact since 2007, fell by the wayside in the worst way imaginable. Meanwhile, teammate Rossi, who finished the day in a triumphant (?) fifth place, saw his personal string of podiums end at 16, but in a good way. His 11 points today stretched his margin over Lorenzo to 23 with but five rounds remaining. He escaped Misano, which has been all but owned by Lorenzo for most of a decade, intact. And if Lorenzo has physical issues that are not fully resolved within two weeks at Aragon, Rossi could be sitting in the catbird seat.

Marc Marquez won his fourth race of the season but still trails Valentino Rossi by 63 points.

We should not overlook Marc Marquez, who today earned perhaps the most meaningless win of his career. He actually dominated the conditions, timing his pit entries perfectly, having learned the Lesson of Aragon 2014, when he stayed out way too long and ultimately crashed out. Surely, his fans around the world, joined by Rossi and his massive worldwide following, hope the young Catalan runs the table this year. A strong finish to the season will make it that much harder for Lorenzo to earn the points he will need to interfere with Rossi’s 10th world championship.

Elsewhere on the Grid

Loris Baz finished a career-best fourth, cementing his position as the favorite to win the open class title.

Loris Baz, whose fourth place finish was the best result for any open class rider this year, did nothing to hurt his rumored switch to Avintia Racing next year. He has pretty much locked up the open class title for the season. The tall 22-year-old Frenchman looks like anything but a MotoGP rider – shades of Marco Simoncelli – but has had a surprisingly successful debut season in MotoGP. Moving up to Avintia, where he might actually get paid, would be a nice payoff for a nice guy.

Two Brits appeared on the podium for the first time in a GP race since the 1979 season opener in Venezuela. Barry Sheene won that race while Tom Herron finished third. Sadly, Herron died later that year in a crash at the Northwest 200.

The factory and Pramac Ducati teams, joined by wildcard Michele Pirro, have seen better days on their home soil. Pirro, who qualified fifth, found himself with deal-breaking electronics issues early, and had to start the race on his wet bike; never quite getting things sorted out, his day ending for good on Lap 10. Suddenly fearsome Danilo Petrucci, who podiumed last time out in the rain, enjoyed a top ten start and beat factory Andreas Iannone and Dovizioso to the finish again, the three finishing 6-7-8 respectively. (Yonny Hernandez crashed his Pramac entry on Lap 10 and collected an oblivious Alex de Angelis, the one Italian rider who is actually from San Marino, adding to his season of woe.) Dani Pedrosa, Alien Emeritus, drove his Repsol Honda to a nondescript ninth place finish, eclipsing Aleix Espargaro and his Suzuki Ecstar by 2/10ths of a second.

Next Up: Aragon

It will be two weeks until the grid descends upon dusty, ancient Aragon, then another fortnight until the frantic three-races-in-three-weeks Pacific flyaway. One hopes that the racing gods got their share of belly laughs today and will have the decency to lay off for the rest of the season. By bolstering the belief of Italian Catholics that God is an Italian Catholic, millions of Rossi fans around the world are giving thanks tonight for Valentino and the heavenly mysteries that brought rain to eastern Italy for twenty minutes on a Sunday afternoon in September.

Valentino Rossi was visited by his former crew chief Jeremy Burgess. If Rossi holds on to win the 2015 title, it will be his first 500cc/MotoGP championship without Burgess at his side.

2015 MotoGP San Marino Top 10 Results

Pos.

RiderTeamTime

1

Marc MarquezRepsol Honda

2

Bradley SmithMonster Yamaha Tech3+7.288

3

Scott ReddingEG 0,0 Marc VDS+18.793

4

Loris BazForward Racing+26.427

5

Valentino RossiMovistar Yamaha+33.196

6

Danilo PetrucciOcto Pramac Ducati+35.087

7

Andrea IannoneDucati Corse+36.527

8

Andrea DoviziosoDucati Corse+37.434

9

Dani PedrosaRepsol Honda+39.516

10

Aleix EspargaroSuzuki Estar+39.692

2015 MotoGP Top Ten Standings After 13 Rounds

Pos.

RiderMotorcyclePoints

1

Valentino RossiYamaha247

2

Jorge LorenzoYamaha224

3

Marc MarquezHonda184

4

Andrea IannoneDucati159

5

Bradley SmithYamaha135

6

Andrea DoviziosoDucati128

7

Dani PedrosaHonda109

8

Danilo PetrucciDucati93

9

Pol EspargaroYamaha81

10

Cal CrutchlowHonda79
Bruce Allen
Bruce Allen

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  • Shlomi Shlomi on Sep 14, 2015

    Marc was slower than Lordnzo on dry, and slower than Rossi on wet. He won the race for pure luck, as both Rossi and Lordnzo rode way too long on rain tires. He changed back to slick earlier as he could not match the leaders on wet, so why not gamble for slick. In 10 years when every one debate who was the best rider of all time everyone will remember that Rossi beat Marc when Rossi was at the end of his career. You can only imagine what would have happenend if Rossi was at his prime (ask Biaggi...)

  • Cocoallegro Cocoallegro on Sep 18, 2015

    Why did Lorenzo and Rossi stay out on wets for so long? Lorenzo had pit board instructions to come in 3 laps before he did.

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