The MotoGP riders are on the grid and waiting for the starting flag. Dani Pedrosa earned the pole position this weekend, and will be looking for his second consecutive race win. Pedrosa is still 68 points behind season leader Jorge Lorenzo, who will start from second on the grid, but he is slowly cutting into the Fiat Yamaha rider's lead.
Casey Stoner completes the front row, followed by Valentino Rossi on row two. Rossi is racing infront of his home crowd, and will do all he can to get back to the top of the podium. Behind Rossi is Ben Spies, who is coming off of his best MotoGP finish of his career. Spies took second at Indy, and will be looking for similar results today in Misano. The second row is completed by Randy De Puniet.
Three minutes until race time.
And they're off!
Pedrosa get's off to a flying start, and at the end of lap 1, he is a half a second ahead of Lorenzo.
Lap 2: Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Rossi. The riders are all lapping in the 1'35 range, but Pedrosa ust dipped down to 1'34.8.
Lap 3: There is plenty of race to go, but Lorenzo has put more than a second behind him and the rest of the pack. That's two consecutive sub 1'35 laps for Pedrosa.
Lap 4: The front of the pack is beginning to separate. Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Rossi, Dovizioso. Ben Spies has dropped down to tenth.
Lap 5: Pedrosa is absolutely flying around the Misano track. Lorenzo maintains his second place spot, but has dropped to almost two and a half seconds behind the Repsol Honda rider.
Lap 6: Lorenzo just put in his best lap of the day, clocking in at 1'34.8. But he'll need more than that if he wants to catch Pedrosa.
The first quarter of the race is over, and the top four riders remain unchanged. Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Stoner, Rossi.
Lap 8: Pedrosa has worked himself into a three second lead over Lorenzo. Riders 2-5 are all within two seconds of eachother.
Lap 10: Pedrosa is a man on a mission. Four seconds separate him from Lorenzo. Rossi, who is at the back of the front group, is 6 seconds off the lead, and two seconds back behind Lorenzo.
Lap 11: Lorenzo continues to get faster around the Misano track. His lap time is now down to 1'34.68. Lorenzo was the only rider to hit 1'33 during qualifying, so you know he has some more speed in the tank.
Lap 13: Rossi gets around Stoner to move into third place. The Misano crowd cheers as Rossi closes on his Fiat Yamaha teammate. Pedrosa, on the other hand, looks uncatchable.
Lap 14: At the halfway mark, Pedrosa has opened up a 4.7 second lead over Lorenzo. Rossi, who sits in third, is 7 seconds back. Stoner continues to fall, and now sits in fifth behind Dovizioso.
Ben Spies got off to a bad start this morning in Misano. The rookie dropped from fifth down to tenth place. He has now worked his was back through the pack, and into 6th place. He'll need to gain 10 seconds though, to catch the front of the pack.
Lap 15: Pedrosa has a 5 second cushion. Rossi has his eyes on Lorenzo, but Dovizioso is dangerously close to passing up the reigning champ for third.
Lap 17: Pedrosa has led the entire race from the pole position thus so far. The Repsol Honda rider needs to hold on for another 10 laps if he wants to claim his second consecutive race win.
Lap 18: Rossi can't keep up with Lorenzo. The defending champ is now three seconds off of Lorenzo's tail.
Lap 20: Lorenzo just took a second out of Pedrosa's time, but he only his 8 more laps to catch him.
Lap 21: Lorenzo is beginning to pick up speed, as Pedrosa is showing signs of slowing down. For the first time today Pedrosa has lapped in the 1'35's, while Lorenzo is starting to get faster.
Rossi is doing his best to keep Dovizioso at bay, but the Italian looks intent on a podium finish.
Lap 23: Lorenzo continues to shave tenths of seconds off of Pedrosa's time, but still sits 4.7 seconds back. With just 5 laps remaining in the MotoGP race in Misano, Lorenzo will have to pick up the pace if he wants a race win.
Lap 24: Rossi can't seem to close the gap on Lorenzo.
Lap 25: Lorenzo is back within 4 seconds of his biggest title competitor. Rossi has found a little space infront of Dovizioso, but remains safely behind his Fiat Yamaha teammate. Casey Stoner and the rest of the pack are 15+ seconds behind.
Lap 26: Another fantastic lap by Lorenzo. Another second has fallen as Pedrosa begins to lose steam. Can Lorenzo catch him before the checkered flags?
Lap 27: With one lap to go, Lorenzo and Rossi are desperately trying to better their positions. Lorenzo has found a little steam left, and has picked the pace back up.
Lap 28: A fantastic win for Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa led the entire way, and never let his competition get close to him. Jorge Lorenzo, who was once more than 6 seconds behind Pedrosa, finished in second, pulling within 1.9 seconds. Valentino Rossi will step back onto the podium today, claiming third in front of his home crowd.
MotoGP Race Results - Misano
Pedrosa / Lorenzo / Rossi / Dovizioso / Stoner / Spies / Edwards / Bautista / Barbera / Melandri
All About Bikes will have a full race report shortly.
