Lorenzo bounces back with victory at San Marino MotoGP

Stoner qualified fastest on the Misano track, and looked set to continue his dominant form from the previous round at Indianapolis, but defending World Champion Lorenzo had other ideas, moving his Yamaha Factory Racing YZR-M1 to the front in the first corner. From there, the Spaniard, held, then extended his lead until the finish to take his third victory of 2011 and reduce the gap to Stoner in the Championship lead to 35 points.

Stoner was within a second of the Spaniard for the opening 10 laps, but Lorenzo managed to stretch the lead beyond three seconds by lap 20. From there, Stoner struggled to fend off his Repsol Honda team mate, Dani Pedrosa for second. Pedrosa was third off the start line, but gradually gained ground on Stoner until he overtook the Australian on lap 22, to cross the line second. In an unusual bout of fatigue, 25 year old Stoner was unable to retaliate and finished third.

Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) fell back to seventh on the start, then impressively made his way back through the pack up to fourth, where he then engaged in a tussle with his rival Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), emerging ahead of his fellow countryman on the last lap to take fourth. Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), whose poor start saw the American drop to seventh on the second lap, caught the duelling Italians and looked capable of making the pass into fourth, but instead got baulked in the final corner to finish sixth behind Dovizioso.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) had a terrific start from 11th on the grid, moving up into fifth by lap two, until Simoncelli got ahead of him on lap four and Spies passed him on lap 15. San Marino is always a special round for Rossi, who met his huge fan base and unveiled the now traditional new helmet design. This year, the 'san Marino Special' AGV lid featured a collection of pictorial 'expletives', which has been identified as pointing to Rossi's frustration with his debut year at Ducati. Despite what has been a disappointing season by any measure, the seven time premier class Champion fought well at Misano to complete the race in seventh, ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) who recorded his fourth top ten finish of the season.

Mapfre Aspar rider Hector Barbera achieved his sixth top ten finish of the season with ninth place, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), just over two seconds in front of Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini). Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) crashed out of the race on lap three, an unfortunate end to an already difficult weekend for the American, while Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing) retired to the pits early in the race.

Aperol MotoGP di San Marino
Race Classification
1. Jorge LORENZO
2. Dani PEDROSA
3. Casey STONER
4. Marco SIMONCELLI
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO
6. Ben SPIES
7. Valentino ROSSI
8. Alvaro BAUTISTA
9. Hector BARBERA
10.Cal CRUTCHLOW

Championship classification - after 13 of 18 rounds
1. STONER - 259
2. LORENZO - 224
3. DOVIZIOSO - 185
4. PEDROSA - 150
5. SPIES - 135