Maverick Vinales turned his pole start into a victory at the Emilia Romagna GP and became the sixth different winner of the 2020 MotoGP season.
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Vinales took his and Yamaha’s first win of the season
Maverick Vinales secured his first win of the season at the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Misano. The Yamaha factory rider started from pole position, but it was a late crash by Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia that gave the Yamaha rider his first 2020 win. In fact, Vinales has emerged as the sixth different winner this season. Affirming the fact that MotoGP continues to be unpredictable week after week. Joining the Vinales was Suzuki’s Joan Mir, who took his second podium, while the KTM factory rider finished third after an overwhelming performance by Pol Espargaro.
Also read: MotoGP: Maverick Vinales takes pole position while Yamaha takes the first 4 places at the San Marino GP
On the podium – Maverick Vinales, Joan Mir and Pol Espargaro
Maverick Vinales started strong and learned from poor tire choices made last week. Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller got off to a better start and quickly took the lead but was only able to maintain Vinales’ advance in a few corners. The Spaniard found a gap at Turn 4 and overtook the Pramac driver who took the lead. He soon widened his gap to the rest of the field by half a second. Meanwhile, Miller quickly lost pace and eventually retired after suffering an engine problem on lap 8.
Pramac still had hopes as Bagnaia emerged as a stronger driver and finished second right from lap 2 behind Vinales. The driver took his fantastic performance from qualifying and managed to take the lead at Turn 4 of lap 6 when Vinales ran far. The Ducati was immediately seven tenths of a second ahead of the Yamaha, which increased to over a second in the following laps.
Francesco Bagnaia lost the lead on lap 21 due to a heartbreaking crash that cost him the win
At the rear, the rest of the field suffered multiple falls when KTM’s Brad Binder fell at Turn 14, just after Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi fell at Turn 4 on lap two. Bagnaia remained untouched by the excitement and now led the race more than 1.6 seconds behind Vinales. The first two riders had moved away from the rest of the grid, however, with Pol Espargaro moving up to P3, followed by Petronas Yamaha SRT rider Fabio Quartararo.
Bagnaia looked good to win the Emilia Romagna GP but the driver lost control at Turn 6 of lap 21 and dropped out of the race. The incident lifted Vinales to the top and there was no going back for the driver who took the factory team’s first championship win of the season.
In the following laps, the battle for second place was fought, as Espargaro lost grip due to a fading tire. Quartararo found the right time to put pressure on the KTM rider. However, Joan Mir had moved from P11 to P4 and wanted to overtake both drivers. The driver had the opportunity to do so at the beginning of lap 22 and drove past Quartararo on P3, followed by passing Espargaro in Turn 4 on the next tour.
Quartararo quickly took 3rd place from Espargaro in the closing stages, but was hit by a long lap because he had exceeded the track limits too often. The driver was unable to take the penalty loop, which resulted in an additional three-second penalty. This downgraded the SRT driver to P4 and promoted Pol Espargaro to the podium.
Valentino Rossi crashed on lap 2 and ended his run prematurely
Behind Quartararo, Miguel Oliviera landed on the Tech 3 KTM, while Takaaki Nakagami was the faster Honda on the grid, with the LCR driver finishing P6 followed by Alex Marquez on the factory Honda at P7. Andrea Dovizioso from Ducati finished the race in an uneventful race for the driver in P8, followed by Franco Morbidelli from Petronas Yamaha SRT and Danilo Petrucci on the Ducati, who completed the top ten.
Johann Zarco from Avintia Ducati landed on P11, Alex Rins on the second Suzuki came in on P12. The last points were taken by Bradley Smith. The race had a lot of falls with Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia, Tito Rabat from Avintia and Iker Lecuona from Tech 3 KTM alongside Rossi, Binder and Miller.
Also read: Maverick Vinales Donates COVID-19 Test Kits to Spanish Nursing Home
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At the end of eight laps, Dovizioso continues to lead the drivers’ standings with 84 points, but Quartararo has caught up to just one point with a difference between the drivers. Maverick Vinales is now in third place with 83 points, level with Quartararo and is a contender for the world title.
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