Maverick Vinales becomes sixth different MotoGP winner of season with victory at Misano

t was the Monster Energy Yamaha rider’s eighth win in MotoGP and after starting from pole the Spaniard meant business passing Jack Miller, who made a fantastic start on the Pramac Ducati, at Turn 2 and opening a 0.7 second gap over hard-charging Pecco Bagnaia on the second Pramac Ducati.

The order remained the same until the Ducati rider made his move for the lead on lap 6 when Viñales ran wide, allowing the Italian through.

Behind the leading two it was all going wrong for Franco Morbidelli, Brad Binder and Valentino Rossi who all crashed out within the first three laps. They all remounted but Rossi retired on lap 15 while KTMs Binder crashed again a few laps later and called it a day.

At the front of the race Bagnaia was controlling the pace but Viñales wasn’t giving up easily and kept the pressure on the young Italian until he lost the front with seven laps to go and slid out of the chance of a first win at Turn 6.

Viñales was well clear of the chasing pack and went on to claim victory and move into third in the title race, one point behind championship leader - Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso - who finished eighth, one place ahead of last week’s winner Morbidelli.

The battle for the final podium places was hotting up with Joan Mir on the Ecstar Suzuki having worked his way through the field after starting from 11th to join Pol Espargaro and Fabio Quartararo with four laps remaining.

With three laps to go Mir squeezed past Quartararo at Turn 2 and it wasn’t long before he also passed Espargaro at Turn 1, on the penultimate lap.

Second was now his but there was more drama still to unfold as Quartararo, who had passed Espargaro for third on the final lap, was given a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits and dropped to fourth.

“I didn’t get a track limits warning message,” he protested but the penalty stood.

Race winner Vinales said: “We did an amazing job this weekend, and we prepared really well for this race. Pecco was very fast, and I was pushing a lot throughout and trying to save a bit of tyre for the last ten laps.

“Then I started to push at the end, and I thought I was catching up with Pecco. But after he made a mistake, I just focused on keeping the bike with both wheels on the ground, trying to not crash and take the maximum amount of points. It‘s fantastic!

“I‘m very happy, because my mentality is exactly the same as it was last weekend and during the last races, but we just found a set-up that‘s a bit better for when we ride with 20 litres at the beginning of the race.”

British riders Sam Lowes and Jake Dixon were well pleased with their Moto2 performances at Misano with both men finishing inside the top six.

Lowes was second in the twice red flagged race and eventually run over 10-laps behind Enea Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi.

It was a career best for Dixon when he brought the Petronas Sprinta Racing Triumph home in sixth place.

Romano Fenati became the most successful Moto3 rider in history when he won the Moto3 race at Misano for the Sterilgarda Max Husqvarna after a coming together between Jaume Masia and Celestino Vietti created enough space for the Italian to take the lead and win by 0.036 seconds from Vietti, with Ai Ogura completing the rostrum.

Winner last time out, Scotland’s John McPhee, had a terrible qualifying ending up 20th fastest leaving him with so much work to do that the best he could manage was tenth by the flag on the Petronas Honda.