ITALIAN great Valentino Rossi led a Yamaha one-two to claim his maiden win of the season at the San Marino Moto GP and launch his bid for a 10th world title on Sunday.
Rossi, a nine-time world champion in all categories, finished the 28-lap race ahead of Spanish teammate Jorge Lorenzo with Dani Pedrosa, on a Honda, in third.
Championship leader Marquez finished 16th after crashing his Honda on the early laps and trailing at the back of the field for most of the contest.
“I’m very happy. It was a great race,” an ecstatic Rossi told Sky Sports.
“Obviously incidents like the one affecting Marquez don’t happen very often.But today we knew we had a great chance to win this race.”
It was Rossi’s 81st win in the sport’s elite class, allowing the 35-year-old Italian to become the first rider to reach 5000 career points.
Lorenzo, Rossi, and Marquez — who had a great start from fourth — exploded off the grid and opened up a small gap as early as the first lap, with Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso and Pedrosa leading the chasing pack.
The Italian had to fend off Lorenzo in the closing stages before crossing the line 1.57secs ahead of the Spaniard, with Pedrosa completing the podium at 4.2.
With five championship races remaining Marquez remains leader on 289 points but has seen Pedrosa (215) and Rossi (214) close the gap to 74 and 75 points respectively. AFP