Michael Scott | June 4, 2017
Photo by Gold & Goose
Italy is a country of exaggeration; Mugello is a circuit of superlatives. But it is hard to exaggerate just how superlative was this year’s Italian GP.
The day started with an extraordinary MotoGP race, the top 19 still about as close on the last lap as they had been as they finished the first.
Then a Moto2 race of rare virtue: not just because of increasingly violent battling for the lead and a surprise Italian winner, but with sustained excitement and variety for every championship point.
The MotoGP race, run in sunshine after an overcast morning had threatened an end to the basking weather of practice, failed to deliver on the default dream of a crowd of almost 100,000. Valentino Rossi didn’t win.
But with victory going to all-Italian Andrea Dovizioso and his equally all-Italian Ducati Desmosedici, in many ways it was even better.
Rossi had qualified second, Movistar Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales had escaped injury in a fast crash on Friday to take pole. But Dovi was alongside for his first front row of the season. And it turned out to be more of an omen than the fact that he woke up at 4 am on race day with all the symptoms of food poisoning, and was too enfeebled to do more than a couple of laps in morning warm-up.
With yellow smoke bombs clouding chunks of the swooping 5.245-km circuit, Rossi took a flyer off the line and led Vinales over the first lap. But the Ducati in third wasn’t Dovi’s. Jorge Lorenzo, last year’s race winner (his fifth MotoGP victory here) was on fire.
He even took the lead on lap three, the Desmosedici’s power giving him a surge past the Yamahas. Rossi got it back through the Scarperia esses, Vinales following him through. From there on, Jorge started to drop back.
Dovi, meanwhile, had survived a massive wobble over the top-speed jump on lap two, and now got ahead of Rossi for the first time on lap four. They swapped once more next time round, but after that the job was done.
Dovi said later: “I was worried about my energy, but I was able to ride fast in a smooth way.” Mugello was one of the worst circuits for him arm-pump problems, he said, but work on settings had made it less of a fight to ride the notoriously physical Desmosedici.
He followed Vinales until just after half distance, then “I didn’t know if I could get away, but I decided to go in front”.
Rossi was still close in third, but by lap six Danilo Petrucci on the Pramac Ducati (also a GP17) had got past Lorenzo, and was closing fast. Two laps later he had made it a quartet up front, and as Dovi took the lead on lap 14 Petrucci also passed Rossi. “When I got to fourth I decided to stay fourth,” he said. “Then I decided – it’s my home race.” Passing Rossi, he quite expected to be passed back … but instead he now found Vinales in his sights, and one lap later he was ahead of him and on Dovi’s tail.
“Now I thought I would try to win. But it was so hard to follow Dovi, and I was out of breath, and I also used up my rear tyre.”
Rossi was still close enough for a four-way battle over the last five laps, but it was deceptive. After his pre-race injuries, he’d basically run out of steam, and “I couldn’t ride the way I like to.” Fourth was still “a gift”, considering even starting had been doubtful a few days before.
Moto2
As they qualified, so they raced: but not quite in the same order. Franco Morbidelli (EG-VDS Kalex) had snitched pole from team-mate Alex Marquez; with veteran Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex) a close fourth. Thomas Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) led row two.
Morbidelli led away, but both Pasini and Marquez were ahead of him by the end of the first lap, and Luthi also on the sixth. The track has never brought good results for the rider who has won four out of five races so far this year, and he said afterwards: “Today I had to be clever.” Meaning he settled for fourth.
The front three laid on quite a spectacle, never more than a few inches apart and going at record speed – the lap record going to Luthi on the eight tour.
On lap 16 Marquez took the lead for the first time under braking for the first corner, only for Pasini to take it back again with a fine tactical swoop through the right-left Casanova-Savelli corner set.
This more or less set the tone, with every effort by his pursuers being repulsed.
The last lap was a thriller. Now it was Luthi’s turn to pounce into the first corner, narrow hanging on through the next uphill corners as Marquez also pushed past..
Pasini, whose last GP win was at this track on a 250 Aprilia in 2009, was not to be denied.
Through Casanova-Savelli he repeated his move on Marquez. Then he pushed inside Luthi into the next right-hander, Arrabbiata 1, to lead again. For the rest of the lap he held off every offensive, and the three crossed the line within 0.136 of a second.
Morbidelli was a safe fourth; Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) equally alone in fifth.
Moto3
Shuffle the pack, do it again a few times, and then pick a card. That’s not far from how the results of the first race of the day were decided.
It is unfair to suggest that first-time winner Andrea Migno (SKY VR46 KTM) didn’t deserve it, and that he didn’t display consummate skill.
But it is also worth noting that the fastest qualifier Jorge Martin (Gresini Honda) came back from a 12-position grid penalty and was one of a hatful of leaders in the early stages … but finished 15th. And that he was barely 1.5 seconds away from victory.
In fact, the first 19 were still technically in the lead group at the end, covered by just 2.3 seconds.
Counting the different leaders would take almost all night, though it is worth noting that Jerez winner Aron Canet (EG Honda) set a new lap record on lap three, which he started in 14th place and finished in 11th. And that nobody led over the line more often than Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Honda), which he did five times.
Consider how hard it was to get the tactics right by studying just one change of position – Nicolo Bulega (SKY VR46 KTM) went from eighth on lap 13 to lead lap 14, then to 16th on lap 15 – having got a little nudge in the process.
It’s enough to say that it was a hell of a race, and the first one this year not won by a Honda. And the first of the day to be won by an Italian, as were the next two as well.
Migno was marginally ahead of Di Giannantonio; Juanfran Guevara (RGA KTM) third, and Darryn Binder (Platinum Bay KTM) denied a first podium by two tenths.
Then came Canet, pole starter John McPhee (British Talent Honda), three-race winner Joan Mir (Leopard Honda), and rank rookie Ayumu Sasaki (SIC Honda). Binder’s team-mate Ramirez, another erstwhile leader, and Bulega completed the top ten.
What a race.
Mir retained his handsome lead, with 108 points. Then there’s Canet (74), Di Giannantonio (71), Fenati (13th today) and Migno (both with 68).
GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA OAKLEY MotoGP Race Classification 2017
Mugello, Sunday, June 04, 2017