Misano low down

The San Marino Grand Prix is a track, which brings up a lot of emotions. This weekend saw the return of Wayne Rainey after his career ending crash in 1993 and of course the remembrance of young Japanese star Shoya Tomizawa who lost his life after a horrific crash during Moto2 last year.

The 125’s saw a battle between Johann Zarco and Nicolas Terol to the end, where Zarco made a massive mistake of looking back as he was crossing the finish line, I don’t know what was running through his head at the time but maybe next time he’ll wait till he crosses the line…

0.022s gap between the two, still no idea what Zarco was doing.

Moto2 was another exciting race; the championship is a close dual with both Stefan Bradl and Marc Marquez in the running to becoming the 2011 Moto2 champion.

The start of the race saw Brit Scott Redding take an early lead after a strong weekend for him and the team, he later slipped back to 5^th behind fellow Briton Bradley Smith paving the way for a Marquez to take the win in Misano while Stefan Bradl finished in 2^nd.

[Moto2 podium]

With the black clouds rolling in and a few spits of rain the MotoGP got underway, all bikes opted for slick tyres.

Lorenzo made his intentions clear and took the lead from Stoner at the first corner, Pedrosa stayed in touch with Stoner through out the race and it was a battle based on which position the trio would be on the podium. Meanwhile another trio where all fighting for fourth, Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Simoncelli and Ben Spies fought till the end.

Six laps to go and Dani Pedrosa took 2^nd from Stoner, making it a Spanish 1-2 with Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo finishing 1^st closing in on the championship, 35 points adrift from Stoner.

Simoncelli put in a major last lap, intense, exciting racing from the Italian who is having a good run of races currently, he took 4^th with Repsol Honda’s Dovizioso in 5^th and Spies in 6^th.

Another reasonable performance from Valentino Rossi as he managed 7^th - not quite the podium feeling of last year but a good effort considering. Meanwhile his teammate Nicky Hayden had a consecutive retirement after crashing out of the San Marino Grand Prix

A disappointing end to Loris Capirossi’ last Italian GP as he retired due to mechanical problem.

The #46 Rossi supporters out in force at Misano...

Not forgetting the Ducati lovers...

And the podium...

Next up - Motorland, Aragon!