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MotoGP: Rossi Wins At Misano!

Valentino Rossi claimed his 107th career win at the Grand Prix of San Marino, the first top podium finish of 2014 for Yamaha

By Motorcyclist

September 16, 2014

Click the NEXT button above to view all 20 photos in the Rossi victory gallery.

Misano back in 2009 - Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa finished in the same order five years ago.

The Misano World Circuit is less than 4 miles from Valentino Rossi’s hometown of Tavullia, Italy, so it was no surprise when the fans went wild as the checkered flag dropped for the number 46 Movistar Yamaha. Not only did Rossi claim his first home track victory since 2009, he did so after qualifying on the front row despite a hard crash during FP2.

Rossi's return to the top podium was the first since Assen 2013, claiming Yamaha’s first win of the 2014. The local hero made an excellent start from third, quickly passing his Movistar Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to lead, to the delight of local fans.

Marc Marquez crashes out on turn 4 of lap 10. With 19 to go, the Repsol Honda would not restart, setting the reigning champion too far back to recover. Said Marquez after his first non-podium finish, “Until now I was pushing in the race 100%, now I will change my mentality and try to close the championship as soon as possible.”

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda MotoGP) battled the nine time World Champion, but lost the front of his RC213V at Rio corner, allowing Rossi to run away with the win. The Italian finished 1.578s ahead of Lorenzo.

The victory gives Rossi 5,012 career points in total and makes him the first rider to achieve 5,000 points across all the classes, with 4,070 amassed in the premier class alone. The road to this record breaking number has seen him take 192 podiums across all classes, 156 in MotoGP.

Rossi now has 214 championship points, just one behind Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), who finished third, as the battle for second in the standings intensifies.

"During the weekend we understood that the Yamaha was very strong and that we had a small advantage over the Hondas. In cases like this where Marquez wins it seems a little difficult, but you get motivated because you think ‘today could be the win,’ but it is always hard. We worked well with the team and made a good qualifying," said Rossi.

He added, "I had a good start to the race and battled with Marc and Jorge, I knew Marc wanted to stay in front. After I saw the board and understood that he had crashed or something it was a little easier as I already had a small advantage over Jorge. It has been five years since my last victory here, a similar race too, it’s like a time machine!"

Rossi leading teammate Lorenzo in 2009.

"My first target was to win a race, this was a better win than Assen. In Assen Jorge broke a collarbone so he was not so solid. This year I’m faster, I finished four times behind Marquez in second. Now we can fight with Dani for second," he concluded.