Photography by Gold & Goose
It was a chaotic day of racing in front of over 92,000 fans at the Grand Prix of San Marino. In a race where riders went from dry setup machines to wet and back to dry again, it was Honda’s Marc Marquez who made the timing of the changes perfectly and sprinted away to win by a 7.288-second margin of victory to earn his first Misano MotoGP victory. Brits Bradley Smith and Scott Redding took surprising podium finishes in second and third – Redding doing so after crashing early in the race!
The world championship battle took a major turn after second-ranked Jorge Lorenzo crashed out. That allowed his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who finished fifth, to extend his series lead to 23 points over Lorenzo (247-224) with five rounds remaining.
Lorenzo got a blistering start with Marquez in tow. Those two immediately put a gap on Rossi, Pedrosa and the rest of the field in the early laps. Rain had been threatening and by the fourth lap the drops became more frequent. The rain flags came out indicating riders could pit for their bikes with the rain setup.
Lorenzo was the rider in the most precarious position being the first to test wetter sections each lap. The pace dropped six seconds from what it had been in the dry.
Scott Redding was the first to get caught out, crashing on his slicks. It would not be the last we would hear from Redding though.
A number of riders pitted for rain bikes, but the leading trio remained on the track, before they all pitted at the same time.
Still on slicks Andrea Dovizioso temporarily took the lead ahead of Bradley Smith and Cal Crutchlow as rain began to pour.
When those leaders pitted it was Marquez leading Lorenzo, with Rossi about 3.4 seconds back.
With 19 laps to go Marquez ran wide in a turn allowing Lorenzo back to the lead.
Yonny Hernandez and Alex de Angelis crashed together.
With 17 laps to go Rossi had chased down Lorenzo and Marquez to make it a three-way battle for the lead. Meanwhile teams were preparing the dry bikes again as dry lines began to form on the 2.6-mile circuit.
Claudio Corti and Loris Baz pitted for bikes with slicks with 15 laps to go, the first to go back to the dry setup. The other teams were thinking about it. Up front Rossi moved past Marquez for second in the tightly-packed leading trio.
Danilo Petrucci, on the GP14.2, emerged fourth in the middle stages of the race.
With 12 laps to go Rossi made the move to the front bringing up a great cheer and wave of yellow flags around the circuit.
With 10 laps to go Marquez pitted his factory Repsol Honda for the dry bike, while the two factory MoviStar Yamaha stayed on the track with rains.
Given the world championship points situation for Rossi the main thing was to stay in front of his teammate Lorenzo. With eight to go Lorenzo pitted for his dry bike. Marquez was in second, but going 10 seconds per lap faster than leader Rossi, still on rain tires.
Rossi finally pitted with seven laps to go, but at the same time Lorenzo suffered a big high-speed crash in turn 15, perhaps the most critical crash of the season in terms of the world championship. Lorenzo was being check out for a possible hand injury afterwards.
With everything shaken out in the closing laps it was Marquez nearly six seconds out front with Smith second and Baz third, but with Redding breathing down his neck. With four laps to go Redding moved past Baz to take the final podium spot – an amazing comeback after crashing earlier in the race.
For Marquez it marked his fourth win of the season, his 23rd-career MotoGP victory.
“I was behind the Yamaha when the asphalt was tearing up the (rain) tire,” Marquez said. “I saw that Lorenzo and Valentino had a big degradation too. I saw also that my bike was starting to move and I was losing time. I say, ‘OK, now it’s time to change the tires.’ When I changed I saw that the track was completely dry, but it was difficult to understand because this asphalt is a new asphalt and was really dark. It’s nice to be here again on the podium. The target was a victory and we did, so we are very happy.”
Smith said it took a lot of nerve to get to his second premier-class podium.
“I’m not going to lie to you at all,” Smith admitted. “I went one lap too late and then two laps too late and I’m just like, ‘Right, I’m in for the long haul now, I’m just going to stay with it.’ I just kept on telling myself that luck favors the brave. I couldn’t believe it. The fact that they were going to do two pit stops, I never expected to be on the podium. I thought maybe a top six was possible, but I come round and there was P2 on the board. Amazing feeling. Just taking a gamble and going for it, going for your gut instinct, which is what I’ve always been told, so it was good.”
Redding talked about crashing and then somehow coming back to earn his very first MotoGP podium.
“I was pushing and it was getting wetter and wetter and I got on the brakes and lost the front,” he said. “I went straight and dropped in the gravel. I tried as fast as I could to get the bike back on the track. Then I thought, ‘OK, I’ll come in for the rain anyway, I have no race.’ So I kept pushing and I thought, ‘The rain tires aren’t working, I’ll come in for the dry anyway. Nothing to lose.’ That’s when the positions were coming down, the lap times were good. I was catching Baz and then yeah, I’m there!”
American Nicky Hayden finished 17th on the Aspar Honda.
The series next moves in two weeks to Motorland Aragón on Sept. 27.
Grand Prix of San Marino MotoGP Results – Sept. 13, 2015
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 146.6 48’23.819
2 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 146.3 +7.288
3 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 145.7 +18.793
4 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 145.3 +26.427
5 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 145.0 +33.196
6 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 144.9 +35.087
7 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 144.8 +36.527
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 144.8 +37.434
9 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 144.7 +39.516
10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 144.7 +39.692
11 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 144.6 +41.995
12 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 144.4 +46.075
13 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 144.2 +48.381
14 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 144.1 +52.325
15 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 144.0 +53.348
16 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 143.7 +58.828
17 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 143.5 +1’02.649
18 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 143.4 +1’04.768
19 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 143.4 +1’05.677
20 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 138.8 1 Lap
21 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 137.4 1 Lap
Not Classified
44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 142.4 2 Laps
99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 141.5 8 Laps
68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 142.7 19 Laps
15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 142.6 19 Laps
51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 98.7 19 Laps
