Andrea Dovizioso scored another podium finish today at Misano Adriatico with third place in the San Marino Grand Prix, which was held in the pouring rain. The Italian rider started from the front row in second and then battled almost all the race with Marquez and Petrucci but had to settle for third a few laps from the end, a result that confirms his position at the top of the table on equal points with Marquez.

A crash on lap 7 put paid to Jorge Lorenzo’s good race. The Spanish rider moved into the lead on the opening lap and immediately set the pace, opening up a gap of more than four seconds on the following riders, but his efforts on the wet track came to an end when he high-sided and retired.

Michele Pirro, taking part in his second wild-card race of the season with the Desmosedici GP of the Ducati Test Team, put in a good performance. The Italian, who started from row 4, recovered well to finish in fifth, just under three seconds away from Viñales.

The MotoGP World Championship will be back on track again in two weeks’ time at the Motorland Aragón circuit near Alcañiz in Spain.

“In the end I’m happy with my third place because today I wasn't able to find a perfect feeling with the bike. I tried to keep up with Marquez and Petrucci and I did for 20 laps, but the track conditions were really difficult. When they began to lower their lap times I would have had to take too many risks to stay in touch, and I preferred to slightly drop my pace to bring home the 16 points for third place, which is very important for the championship. The Misano weekend however confirmed that we can be competitive on every circuit and we can fight for the title until the very end.”