Luca Marini defeated VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi to win the Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix at Misano to lead a VR46 1-2 at its home event.
Marini led the majority of the race after starting on effective pole despite qualifying third, as pole-man Sam Lowes-who led the field by three-tenths-was forced to start from pit lane as punishment for his part in the nasty crash mid-way during the Styrian GP, while Remy Gardner was ruled out for the race after crashing heavily during warm-up- the SAG racer fracturing his hand and foot.
Marini and Bezzecchi-as well as third placed Enea Bastianini- all lapped within a couple of tenths of each other throughout, although the former’s greater consistency allowed him to open up a 1.5 second advantage over Bezzecchi across the opening half of the contest.
Bezzecchi managed to find a second wind though, closing back in on Marini to start mounting pressure on the leader.
His strategy worked, Marini running wide at Turn 11 and thus allowing Bezzecchi into the lead.
Marini immediately regained his composure though and was quickly challenging his team-mate for leadership once again, passing him several times before Bezzecchi was able to snap back and deny the championship leader.
Marini eventually made a move stick at Turn 8 with just a few tours remaining, his cause helped as Bezzecchi himself ran wide at Turn 11 on the penultimate circulation.
This allowed Marini to cruise home to win by 0.799, while Bezzecchi narrowly held onto second ahead of a charging Bastianini.
The Italtrans pilot was lucky to escape a moment of his own at Turn 8 earlier in the race as he tucked the front of his Kalex into the left-hander, just about keeping his machine upright.
Xavi Vierge put in a strong performance for Petronas SRT to claim fourth, while Augusto Fernandez completed the top five for Marc VDS.
Thomas Luthi was unable to capitalise on his strong early speed and came home sixth, while Fabio Di Gianantonio bagged his best result of the season so far in seventh for Speed Up.
Lowes displayed pace comparable to the leaders as he fought his way up to an impressive eighth by the flag, passing Aron Canet for ninth on the final lap-the Aspar rider himself recovering well from 22nd on the grid-while Joe Roberts completed the top ten for American Racing.
Tetsuta Nagashima was a late casualty as he crashed out on the final lap from eighth.
Marini’s victory means he extends his championship points lead to 17 over Bastianini, while Bezzecchi moves up to third overall 27 behind his team-mate.
Jorge Martin slips to fourth-now 33 away from the head of the standings-after being forced to miss the San Marino event due to contracting Covid-19.
