After all the excitement, Andrea Dovizioso has won yet another MotoGP race, the sixth of the season. That figure matches championship leader Marquez's wins tally for the season. There were a couple of scenarios where Marquez could have been crowned during this race itself, but it wasn't to be.
Rain fell just before and during the race, turning it into a wet one. Under these conditions, the Ducatis of Lorenzo and Dovizioso excelled, as did the third GP17 of Petrucci. Dani Pedrosa's advantage evaporated as the temperatures plummeted. The frontrunners ended up being the usual suspects: Marquez, Zarco and Dovizioso, but Lorenzo was the surprise package. He slipped into the lead and kept a comfortable distance from Dovi as the laps flew by. Meanwhile, Zarco was slowly but surely falling into the clutches of Marquez - but Marquez was riding a cautious race after his qualifying crashes. He settled for fourth place, eventually. Lorenzo found himself in the unenviable position of having to choose to let his teammate by, to keep the riders' championship open, but all questions about 'team orders' simply went out the window because of a big front-end slide that let Dovi past and into the lead. Lorenzo's first win on the Ducati looked very likely in this race - the irony here is off the charts, considering the Ducati doesn't handle very well, and Lorenzo's history on damp tracks - but it remains elusive for the Spaniard.The Movistar Yamahas had another dismal outing in the wet, Rossi managing to finish seventh but joking that it might be better for Zarco to keep this year's bike instead of upgrading for the next season. Danilo Petrucci's start from the back of the grid meant he finished sixth - who knows what might have happened had he started in his actual qualifying place!
On to Valencia, then, where Dovizioso still has a mathematical chance of winning the championship, but for Mr Marq 'Consistency' Marquez to score a DNF is highly unlikely. However, that's a story for another day.
