MotoGP Misano: Riders of the day
We witnessed some fantastic races today in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP, here are our riders of the day.
Moto3 – John McPhee
John McPhee pulled off a racing masterclass today, starting the race from a low P17, battling his way through the pack to take the race win, the win was not an easy feat, fending off advances from many riders including Gabriel Rodrigo, Ai Ogura and more to win the race. John carefully overtook rider after rider from the start of the race, gaining 6 places in the opening lap.
On lap 12 McPhee was demoted to P14 from P10 meaning he had more work to do, but the Scot gritted his teeth and bit down on his gumshield making his way into the top 5 by lap 15. From here McPhee battled consistently with the front riders over the last few laps, making a double overtake on the final corner and leading over the line in the final laps.
McPhee would start the last lap in second place but was calm and collected and took the race win in style.
Moto2 – Sam Lowes
What a race by Sam Lowes! The British rider pulled off a phenomenal comeback from pit lane to finish the race in P8. Lowes was penalised for his ‘bowling ball’ manoeuvre at Styria which skittled many riders off of the track, meaning that Lowes had to start from pit lane, despite qualifying in pole position. The odds were stacked up against Lowes before the race even started but this did not phase the Englishman who by lap 4 had overtaken the last few riders, moving from P28 to P26.
Lowes made consistent progression lap by lap, overtaking his rivals without too many difficulties, crossing the line on lap 19 in 14th place with just 6 laps to go. By this time, Lowes had the bike dialled in and was able to lap consistently 0.100 within race winner Luca Marini’s lap time. Sam made his way into the top 10 on the penultimate lap before finishing the race in P8.
MotoGP – Francesco Bagnaia
If it wasn’t for the crutches in parc ferme, there is absolutely no chance you would’ve believed that Francesco Bagnaia was riding injured and that it was his race return. Bagnaia took an excellent P2 overall today which was his maiden MotoGP podium, being owed one from Andalucia when his Pramac Ducati broke down on him. Bagnaia qualified in P6 overall, just 0.643 from the lap record-breaking time of Maverick Vinales, Bagnaia placed just behind his teammate Jack Miller.
On the opening lap, Bagnaia instantly lost a place to Joan Mir who decided he wanted to assert some dominance in the early stages of the race, Bagnaia calmly followed the Spaniard, gaining a place on lap 8 to P7 following a crash from Fabio Quartararo. On lap 10 when the iron was hot, Bagnaia struck, overtaking Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir to take fifth place behind Alex Rins, Bagnaia decided once again to keep calm and wait it out, on lap 14 Jack Miller who was ahead of Rins and Bagnaia would drop back to P5, giving Bagnaia his equal best result of fourth place.
However Bagnaia had champagne on his mind, he had pace and knew he could do more, overtaking Alex Rins on lap 19 to take third place behind boss Valentino Rossi and fellow VR46 Riders Academy rider Franco Morbidelli, just a lap later Bagnaia would overtake his boss Valentino Rossi for second place which Bagnaia would hold for the rest of the race. Putting down solid lap times, using the extra fuel and tyres he had leftover from following riders earlier in the race. His performance was a masterclass, something you would expect from a much more experienced rider who was not injured, P2 is now Bagnaia’s best result and he becomes the 12th different rider on the podium this season.
Honourable mentions go to Franco Morbidelli (MotoGP), Joan Mir (MotoGP), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Moto2), Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Moto2), Jeremy Alcoba (Moto3), Ricardo Rossi (Moto3), Stefano Nepa (Moto3) and Carlos Tatay (Moto3).
Featured image – www.motogp.com
