MotoGP: Marquez bounces back to win Misano race, Bezzecchi delivers a stellar performance to finish second

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Márquez clinched victory at Misano, fractionally beating Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

Starting from the front of the field, Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi kept the lead into the first corner, but six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez mirrored his start from the Sprint, jumping from fourth on the grid to second.

KTM factory rider Pedro Acosta had a stellar start, moving himself ahead of two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia to improve to seventh from eighth on the grid.

The Spaniard then picked off Luca Marini before going past the VR46 duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli. The KTM rider did not wait long before he launched an attack on Fabio Quartararo. He overtook the Frenchman at Turn 8, but serious drama unfolded just moments later as Acosta’s chain fell off on the way down to Turn 8, the same problem teammate Brad Binder suffered on Friday.

Then, another big name was out of contention when Francesco Bagnaia crashed out at Turn 10 while running in P7. The two-time world champion ended a forgetable weekend in front of his home crowd.

In the meantime, Bezzecchi held off the attacks from Márquez, but the Rimini-born rider made a small mistake at Turn 8 which opened the door for the Ducati rider, who hit the front on Lap 12.

Although Márquez initially looked to be able to escape from Bezzecchi, the Italian managed to close in on the Spaniard, and the pair were were separated by 0.2s on Lap 17.

The following laps saw Márquez and Bezzecchi set the fatest laps after the fastest laps, but the Aprilia rider was unable to launch a real attack despite the tiny gap.

The penultimate lap was Bezzecchi’s personal best of the Grand Prix, but it was not enough against Márquez, who managed to hold on to put his Sprint crash behind him and collect 25 points ahead of Bezzecchi, who did brilliantly to pile on the pressure for the second half of the Grand Prix.

Alex Márquez finished third at Misano, but he was a whopping 7.7s separated from his brother Marc, but it was still enough to strengthen his second place in the drivers’ standings as a result of Bagnaia’s retirement from his home race.

Valentino Rossi’s squad ended another strong day at Misano after its stellar performance in the Sprint, with Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio finishing P4 and P5, respectively.

Gresini Ducati’s rookie Fermin Aldeguer ended the Misano round with a solid P6, ahead of Honda’s Luca Marini, Fabio Quartararo, Miguel Oliveira, whilst Brad Binder completed the top 10.

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