MotoGP Race Report & Results - Misano 2011

It was a flag to flag race at Misano as a few spots of rain started to fall just before the riders came our on track.

A great strart from Jorge Lorenzo saw him muscle Casey Stoner to take the lead but he had all three Repsol Honda’s chasing him.

Meanwhile in the pits all the teams had the second bikes ready to go in case the rain began to come down harder.

Valentino Rossi was having a fantastic start to his race as he’d made his way up to fifth from 11th on the grid and even put in an early fastest lap.

Just a few laps in and disaster for Nicky Hayden as he crashed out whilst at the same time Loris Capirossi had some kind of mechanical issue and was forced to pit in.

Marco Simoncelli had a sudden burst of speed as he powered past Rossi and then Andrea Dovizioso to move into fourth place.

At the front Lorenzo and Stoner began to pull away from third placed Dani Pedrosa who didn’t seem to have the space to stay with his team mate and the Yamaha.

Capirossi, despite having come back out, was forced to retire with 18 laps to go as he came back into the pits in frustration.

There was a nice battle for fourth with Simoncelli, Dovizioso, Rossi and Spies all pushing hard and within a bike length of each other.

At the front meanwhile Lorenzo had pulled the pin and was beginning to get away from the chasing Stoner and with 13 laps to go the gap was over two seconds.

Despite Rossi’s great start he was slowly slipping backwards and was now at the back of the battle for fourth in seventh position.

Lorenzo was just consistently putting in fast laps at the front pulling out a nearly four second lead over Stoner in second place with Pedrosa in third though he was catching Stoner lap by lap.

With six laps to go Pedrosa passed his team mate Stoner to take second position with Stoner looking like he was having tyre issues once more later in the race.

Lorenzo was now over seven seconds in the lead at the front ahead of Pedrosa, while Dovizioso made a late lunge to take Simoncelli who subsequently shut the door on him only for Dovizioso to make the pass again a few corners later.