MotoGP: Emilia-Romagna GP roundup.

2020 continues to deliver unbelievable racing, and the Emilia Romagna GP held at Misano took the heat to new heights!

Moto3 –

Romano Fenati took a pretty special win at Misano, the scene of the crime that almost ended his career a couple of years ago in Moto2, ahead of home favourite Celestino Vietti and Ai Ogura. Ogura has closed up to within 2 points of the championship leader Albert Arenas after finishing ahead of the Aspar KTM man for the second consecutive race. Arenas was 4th and will be relieved to have finished in the top 5 after the nightmare of not finishing last weekend. The top 5 was rounded out by Jaume Masia, who actually led the race with only 4 corners to go, before getting divebombed by Vietti and forced very wide, he will be very disappointed. Other notable rides were Kaito Toba seeming to have finally figured out the Ajo KTM to come home 9th, last week’s winner John McPhee will be disappointed to have finished in a lowly 10th, which doesn’t do his championship charge any good at all. Darryn Binder suffered a huge high side while dicing for the top 6, and came back to earth with a huge bump.

Full results here.

Moto2 –

Enea Bastianini took the win after two attempted restarts, with rain playing havoc with the timings as the heavens opened on the first restart’s warm-up lap after it had been stopped due to light rain. Before the rain, the race was red hot with Xavi Vierge leading Luca Marini, while Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi also in close attendance. The restart was a different story, however, with Marini taking the holeshot but Bastianini having none of it, living up to his ‘Beast’ nickname and putting a very hard, but fair, move on Marini to take the lead, and this shuffled Marini back into the pack, from which he never fully recovered and would finish 4th. Bezzecchi and Sam Lowes would end up rounding out the podium, but it could have been very different if Marcel Schrotter had not made contact with Vierge, sending the Spaniard down and out of a podium place. Marcel Schrotter would round out the top 5 without punishment for the Vierge incident, and Jake Dixon would impress to come home 6th, his best Moto2 finish to date. Elsewhere both Forward Racing MV Agusta boys would finish in the points, with Simone Corsi coming home 12th and Stefano Manzi getting 15th, the first double points finish in 2020 for the squad.

Full results here.

MotoGP –

Maverick Vinales silenced some of his doubters with an outstanding win after Pecco Bagnaia heartbreakingly crashed out of the lead with 8 laps to go. Bagnaia had been inch perfect until then and really didn’t do much wrong, but the limit was found. Vinales had finally gotten himself a good start, leading the opening exchanges from Bagnaia and Miller. There were a few crashes in the opening laps, with Valentino Rossi breaking Italian hearts crashing out of 7th, and Brad Binder crashed out of 3rd, before remounting and crashing out again! Aleix Espargaro also crashed after 6 corners and took Franco Morbidelli into the gravel with him, but Morbidelli was able to stay aboard his Yamaha. The race was one that hotted up towards the end, Vinales was long gone, but there was a 3 bike battle for the lead at the end, with Joan Mir, Pol Espargaro and Fabio Quartararo all dicing for 2 podium positions. Mir and Espargaro won the podium spots after Quartararo found himself with a long lap penalty on the final lap after one too many transgressions against the rules, Miguel Oliviera took yet another fantastic result with 5th. When the dust settled, the top 4 of the championship were sandwiched together, and somehow Andrea Dovizioso still leads despite a muted 9th place, but Vinales and Quartararo are only one point behind, and Mir is a further 2 back. 2020 is wild!

Full results here.

MotoE –

Domi Aegerter took the holeshot but was quickly passed by the reigning champion Matteo Ferrari, who was never beaten once he took the lead. He was helped by the fact Tommaso Marcon made a poorly judged move into turn 2 and took out Aegerter in the process, while he was having his best showing in the MotoE class to date. Aegerter would come home in 16th. Ferrari was joined on the podium by the impressive Mattia Casadei and Jordi Torres, with Casadei holing off Torres who launched multiple attacks for 2nd place but found himself unable to pass and having to settle for 3rd. Niccolo Canepa was a lonely 4th, and Alessandro Zaccone improved further to come home 5th. Alejandro Medina and Niki Tuuli would cop penalties on the final lap, but neither were inside the top 5 anyway.

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