Jorge Lorenzo on top in San Marino MotoGP

The progress of Marc Márquez had been marginally slowed in the British Grand Prix, as the 2013 FIM MotoGP World Championship developed into a three-way contest between Spanish riders. Jorge Lorenzo had been the winner at Silverstone, with round thirteen at Misano.

The San Marino Grand Prix (also taking in the Rimini Riviera) is held at the Italian venue, scene of three past GP wins for both Lorenzo and class rookie Márquez, with Valentino Rossi having won twice close to home, and these men joined by Misano victors Dani Pedrosa, Álvaro Bautistá and Héctor Barberá. The circuit has a mostly open layout, with a few tighter corners, but certainly with fast stretches.

Qualifying saw four of those former race winners at the top of the timesheets, with Márquez starting on pole position despite suffering more than one fall. His Repsol Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, was in fourth position after having had some issues with rear grip. These two were split by the two factory Yamaha men, with Lorenzo second and then Rossi, the pair now using a seamless-shift sequential gearbox - such as Honda already have. Another Yamaha was in fifth, with Cal Crutchlow taking that slot on his Tech 3 machine, whilst team-mate Bradley Smith could not better P13.

Another strong CRT showing for Aleix Espargaró in the Power Electronics Aspar team, riding the ART bike, saw the 24-year-old starting sixth. Team-mate Randy de Puniet was ten places behind. The remaining prototype bikes filled the slots immediately following on from Aleix, with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) in seventh, then Bautistá (Gresini Honda), Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden (both works Ducati), Michele Pirro and Andrea Iannone (both Pramac Ducati).

Between Smith and de Puniet were Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Avintia Blusens), and the remaining positions, from P17, were filled by Barberá (Avintia Blusens), Claudio Corti (NGM Mobile Forward Racing), Danilo Petrucci (Came IodaRacing Project), Michael Laverty and Yonny Hernández (both Paul Bird Motorsport), Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Lukáš Pešek (Came IodaRacing Project).

For the race, conditions were cool and there was the possibility of rain. Lorenzo got away and into the first corner ahead, followed by Pedrosa and Márquez. Espargaró was up to fourth, but in fact he’d jumped the start and would have to serve a pitlane ride-through penalty in due course. Rossi passed the CRT man in the Curva della Quercia, a looping left-hander. Crutchlow was sixth, from Bradl, Smith, Bautistá, Dovizioso, Iannone, Hayden, Pirro and Edwards. Espargaró would lose another place to Crutchlow going into lap two.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo had run such a strong pace on the first lap that he pulled out 1.2s over his Honda rivals, and this was up to 2.2s after three laps, even though second man Pedrosa had also started to pull away from Márquez. Rossi ran fourth, with quite a gap starting to open up back to Crutchlow and Bradl, and with Espargaró soon to be relegated further by Bautistá. Aleix made his pit visit soon after, rejoining the field 21st, behind Hernández; and then Márquez managed to lose out to Rossi at della Quercia, where the Honda man braked late and ran wide, which gave the local hero the chance to go through.

With Iannone suffering an early crash when running ninth (the leading Ducati), and Pešek stopping in the pits, the order in the second half of the field was now Hayden (eighth), from Dovizioso, Smith, Pirro, Edwards, Petrucci, Corti, Aoyama, Barberá, Laverty, de Puniet, Staring, Hernández, Espargaró and Abraham. However, the Czech rider had run off the track and would soon stop in the pits, apparently in some pain. Hernández would also retire before much longer.

Lorenzo’s lead was up to about 2.8s before Pedrosa and Rossi found an answer, and now they looked like they could lap a bit quicker, and maybe start to reduce his advantage. But at that stage it was Márquez who was quickest, and soon he was right back onto the tail of Valentino’s Yamaha. Turn nine at Misano is a long looping right-hander, Curva del Tramonto, and Marc made his move there, squeezing through on the inside at the apex.

Half-distance saw Lorenzo’s lead over Pedrosa at about 2.2s, but Jorge was able to respond to the threat, and meanwhile third man Márquez was lapping faster than his team-mate ahead. It was as close as anything through the final left-hander, Curva Misano, onto the main straight, and into the first right-hander, Curva Rimini. Marc was then set to pass Dani on the inside for the immediate left at Variante del Parco. By now Rossi had dropped back into a solitary fourth, with fifth man Cruthclow still heading Bradl.

With ten laps remaining, Lorenzo’s lead was just approaching three-seconds, and this was more like 4.3s five laps later, as the Honda pair had their own contest for second. Pedrosa’s neater riding style meant that at times he was very close behind Márquez and, with seven laps to go, Dani was on the attack. At Tramonto there was room enough on the inside for the more experienced man to overtake before they headed through the next series of right-handers. However, Curva del Carro (or turn fourteen) is the slowest and most acute of these, and Marc was able to jam his Honda inside the other one on the brakes, getting back in front.

From that point, Pedrosa began to lose ground to Márquez, with Dani experiencing more rear grip issues; and Lorenzo was able to ease his pace in the last three laps, as the Spanish trio finished in the same order as at Silverstone. Rossi was fourth, whilst fifth was only decided on the last lap. Bradl passed Crutchlow on the inside at Quercia, the two men taking different lines on the way out. This put Cal on the inside at the exit, and ahead again, but then Stefan was there on the inside for Tramonto, where he completed the move. Bautistá came home seventh, well clear of his pursuers.

Dovizioso overtook team-mate Hayden for eighth, increasing his advantage in the late laps, and with Pirro a similar distance back as Ducati machinery completed the top ten; and Smith was last of the prototype runners. Espargaró made good progress to overtake eight of his CRT rivals, finishing up in P13, and behind only Edwards in the class. Barberá and Staring both retired in the late stages, leaving the final finishers as Aoyama, Petrucci, Corti, de Puniet and Laverty.

Jorge Lorenzo’s win was his second in a row and helped him claw back some ground on championship leader Marc Márquez. The Yamaha number one is now level on points with Dani Pedrosa (who was on the podium for the 80th time in the premier class), but Márquez still has a good margin of 34 points over the pair of them. The youngster doesn’t have to win any of the remaining races, but would need a run of second and third places to stay in his position at the top, and momentum can always switch when you have such competitive individuals in action. Does he have enough experience to stay consistent?

Standings after thirteen races: Márquez 253; Pedrosa and Lorenzo 219; Rossi 169; Crutchlow 146; Bradl 124; Bautistá 112; Dovizioso 104; Hayden 95; Espargaró and Smith 71 ·· CRT leader: Espargaró.
Honda 291; Yamaha 270; Ducati 115; ART 73; FTR-Kawasaki 46; Ioda Suter-BMW 23; PBM-ART 3; FTR-Honda 2.