MotoGP

Vinales handed MotoGP win as Bagnaia crashes out of lead

by Matt Beer
3 min read

Maverick Vinales inherited his and the works Yamaha team’s first MotoGP victory of the 2020 season after Pramac Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia crashed out of a clear lead with just seven laps to go at Misano.

Bagnaia – who had lost a potential pole lap to a track limits infringement yesterday – had rapidly fought through from fifth on the grid to take the lead from Vinales on lap five of the 28-lap race.

He then looked on course to comfortably take his and Pramac’s first MotoGP win as he established a 1.5s cushion over Vinales.

But just as Bagnaia appeared certain to become 2020’s fifth first-time victor in seven races, he lost the bike at the tight Turn 8 left-hander and crashed out.

That left Vinales with a commanding 4s lead over the battle between Pol Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir for second.

Maverick Vinales wins Misano MotoGP 2020

Petronas SRT Yamaha rider Quartararo had spent most of the race trying in vain to pass Espargaro’s KTM, before Mir caught their battle and quickly sliced past both to give Suzuki second place.

Quartararo overtook Espargaro too, only to then pick up a long lap penalty for track limits infringements. He didn’t take it on track so a 3s penalty was applied, dropping him to fourth between the KTMs of Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira.

Bagnaia was far from the only crasher in the race.

Last week’s winner Franco Morbidelli had to fight back to ninth after being sent wide when Aleix Espargaro crashed his Aprilia on lap one and slid into the Petronas SRT Yamaha.

Valentino Rossi also fell early on and later retired, while Brad Binder battled into the top three for KTM in the opening laps but then crashed twice.

Fellow KTM runner Iker Lecuona of Tech3 was on course for sixth before he became the final faller on the penultimate lap.

Misano MotoGP 2020

Jack Miller crashed very heavily in the warm-up, but shrugged it off to blast from second into the lead at the start of the race before Vinales retaliated further around the order lap. Miller slipped down the order thereafter before retiring with an engine problem caused by one of Quartararo’s visor tear-offs going into his Ducati.

Honda had some encouragement as Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez finished sixth and seventh, warm-up pacesetter Marquez having rapidly advanced into the top 10 in the first few laps.

Andrea Dovizioso amazingly still leads the championship thanks to a quiet eighth place, putting him just one point ahead of the now-tied Quartararo and Vinales with Mir a further three adrift.

The second works Ducati of Danilo Petrucci fell back from an early top six place to 10th. Johann Zarco, Alex Rins and Bradley Smith were the only other finishers.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Maverick Viñales Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 27 12 41m55.846s 1m32.484s 0 25
2 Joan Mir Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 27 0 +2.425s 1m32.54s 0 20
3 Pol Espargaró Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +4.528s 1m32.568s 0 15
4 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 27 0 +6.419s 1m32.626s 0 13
5 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM 27 0 +7.368s 1m32.598s 0 11
6 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 27 0 +11.139s 1m32.753s 0 10
7 Alex Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 27 0 +11.929s 1m32.865s 0 9
8 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Team Ducati 27 0 +13.113s 1m32.932s 0 8
9 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 27 0 +15.88s 1m32.684s 0 7
10 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Team Ducati 27 0 +17.682s 1m33.048s 0 6
11 Johann Zarco Avintia Racing Ducati 27 0 +23.144s 1m33.319s 0 5
12 Alex Rins Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 27 0 +24.962s 1m33.012s 0 4
13 Bradley Smith Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 27 0 +30.008s 1m33.52s 0 3
Iker Lecuona Red Bull KTM Tech 3 KTM 24 0 DNF 1m32.626s 0 0
Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Racing Ducati 20 15 DNF 1m32.316s 0 0
Valentino Rossi Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 15 0 DNF 1m33.126s 0 0
Tito Rabat Avintia Racing Ducati 12 0 DNF 1m33.495s 0 0
Jack Miller Pramac Racing Ducati 7 0 DNF 1m33.307s 0 0
Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 3 0 DNF 1m35.489s 0 0
Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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