It was a field of waving yellow flags and hats that welcomed Valentino Rossi who won his 6th race and the 13th round of the MotoGP championship at the Misano GP.
The opening lap of race was marred by Alex DeAngelis who crashed out at turn 2, taking out the first Colin Edwards who in turn brought down Nicky Hayden who barely missed clipping Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi sporting his ‘donkey’ helmet after his crash at Indy fell back to third in the first lap and then fourth in lap 2 when team mate Lorenzo overtook him.
Rossi took his time passing first Lorenzo on lap 5, then overtook Elias and then lined up Dani Pedrosa and passed him on lap 8 and started to build his advantage.
Lorenzo in the meantime passed Elias and then found himself stuck behind Pedrosa who was closing all the lines until the Honda went wide on lap 14 and Lorenzo got past, but Rossi upped his pace and would win the race with a confortable advantage of 2.
416s over 2nd place Lorenzo.
Third went to Dani Pedrosa who finished 12.
400s behind Rossi and ran out of fuel on the honor lap and had to hitch a ride with Toni Elias.
Pedrosa has now moved up to third place in the standings, ahead of Casey Stoner who has missed three races, and is 80 points from Rossi.
Andrea Dovizioso took another fourth place after battling with Loris Capirossi and slipstreamed his fellow countryman on the slower Suzuki on the straight.
Toni Elias finished in sixth after running in second for several laps.
Mika Kallio on his last race with the factory Ducati was seventh.
Marco Melandri was eighth, Chris Vermeulen ninth and James Toseland rounded out top ten.
Aleix Espargaro finished his second and last MotoGP race in eleventh, ahead of Randy de Puniet, Niccolò Canepa and Gabor Talmacsi.
MotoGP will be back for the Estoril race October 4th.
MotoGP Misano Race Results:1 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 44′32.
8822 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha +2.
4163 Dani PEDROSA Honda + 12.
4004 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Honda +26.
3305 Loris CAPIROSSI Suzuki +26.
5396 Toni ELIAS Honda + 28.
2867 Mika KALLIO Ducati +30.
1848 Marco MELANDRI Kawasaki +31.
7579 Chris VERMEULEN Suzuki + 31.
90910 James TOSELAND Yamaha +38.
34711 Aleix ESPARGARO Ducati +46.
67312 Randy DE PUNIET Honda + 52.
04113 Niccolo CANEPA Ducati +1′03.
19814 Gabor TALMACSI Honda +1′22.
347DNFAlex DeAngelisColin EdwardsNicky Hayden
