Maverick Vinales secured his first win of the season the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Misano. The factory Yamaha rider started from the pole position, but it was a late crash of Francesco Bagnaia of Pramac Ducati that helped the Yamaha rider secure his first win of 2020. In fact, Vinales has turned out to be the sixth different winner this season, reinforcing the fact that MotoGP continues to be unpredictable week after week. Joining the Vinales were Joan Mir of Suzuki taking his second podium finish, while a smashing performance by Pol Espargaro saw the KTM factory rider finish third.
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On the podium - Maverick Vinales, Joan Mir and Pol Espargaro
Maverick Vinales started off strongly, learning from the poor tyre choice made last week. Jack Miller of Pramac Ducati though had a better start and was quick to take the lead but could only sustain the advances from Vinales for a few corners. The Spanish rider found a gap of in Turn 4 and passed the Pramac rider taking the lead. He soon extended his gap by half a second over the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Miller was quickly losing pace and had eventually drop out after suffering an engine issue on Lap 8.
Pramac still had its hopes up with Bagnaia emerging as the stronger rider and was placed second behind Vinales right from Lap 2. Carrying over his fantastic performance from qualifying, the rider managed to take the lead at Turn 4 of Lap 6 when Vinales ran wide. The Ducati was immediately seven-tenths of a second over the Yamaha, which extended to over a second in the following laps.
Francesco Bagnaia lost the lead on Lap 21 in a heartbreaking crash that cost him the win
Bagnaia looked well on his way to win the Emilia Romagna GP but the rider lost control Turn 6 of Lap 21 crashing his way out of the race. The incident promoted Vinales to the top and there was no looking back for the rider, bagging the factory team's first championship win of the season.
The following laps then saw the battle for second take place as Espargaro was losing grip due to a fading tyre. Quartararo found the right time to build pressure over the KTM rider. However, Joan Mir had moved up to P4 from P11 and was looking to pass both riders. The rider did get the opportunity to do so at the start of Lap 22 and moved up P3 passing Quartararo, which was followed by a pass on Espargaro on Turn 4 on the next tour.
Quartararo was quick to take P3 from Espargaro in the closing stages but was hit a by a long lap for exceeding track limits too many times. The rider failed to take the penalty loop which further brought a three-second penalty. This demoted the SRT rider to P4 promoting Pol Espargaro to the podium.
Valentino Rossi crashed on Lap 2 ending his run early on
Johann Zarco of Avintia Ducati finished at P11 with Alex Rins on the second Suzuki coming in at P12. The final points were taken by Bradley Smith. The race had a fair share of crashes with Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia, Tito Rabat of Avintia, and Iker Lecuona of Tech 3 KTM joining Rossi, Binder and Miller.
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At the end of eight rounds, Dovizioso continues to lead the rider standings with 84 points but Quartararo has closed in with the difference down to just a single point between the riders. Meanwhile, Maverick Vinales is running third with 83 points, equalling that of Quartararo and is contender for the world title.
