Dovizioso Rises in San Marino Grand Prix

Italian motorcycle racer Andrea Dovizioso won the San Marino Grand Prix for Ducati on Sunday while reigning world champion Marc Marquez finished second to increase his MotoGP championship lead to 67 points.

Local favorite Valentino Rossi managed only a distant seventh for Yamaha and lost second place overall to Dovizioso who now has 154 points to Spaniard Marquez’s 221 with six races remaining. Rossi has 151, Reuters reported.

Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo, who had started on pole position at the Marco Simoncelli circuit on Italy’s Adriatic coast, crashed out on the penultimate lap while heading for a Ducati one-two finish.

That lifted Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, whose home race at Silverstone last month was cancelled due to heavy rain and drainage problems, to third as the leading non-factory finisher on an LCR-Honda.

The win was Dovizioso’s first at Misano and third of the season as well as his team’s third in a row. Lorenzo had won in Austria while his team mate triumphed in the Czech Republic before that.

Italian Moto2 rider Romano Fenati was banned for two races after leaning over on the straight and grabbing the brake lever on rival Stefano Manzi’s bike following an earlier clash.

Stewards ruled he had “deliberately attempted to cause danger to another rider by interfering with his machine whilst on track”.

Fenati was immediately shown the black flag, disqualifying him from the race, but Crutchlow felt the rider had got off lightly.

Fenati’s Moto2 team Marinelli Snipers has announced that it will be terminating its deal with the rider following his actions in the Misano race.

An initial statement from the Snipers team on Sunday described Fenati’s actions as “unforgivable” and “a serious mistake, broadcast worldwide”, but did not suggest further sanctions for the rider, AFP reported.

“Now we can communicate that the Marinelli Snipers Team shall terminate the contract with the rider Romano Fenati, from now on, for his unsporting, dangerous and damaging conduct,” the statement read. “With extreme regret, we have to note that his irresponsible act endangered the life of another rider and can’t be apologized [for] in no way.”