Dovizioso beats Marquez

Italy's Andrea Dovizioso won the San Marino MotoGP on Sunday for the Ducati rider’s third success of the season, holding off world championship leader Marc Marquez of Honda.

The 32-year-old Dovizioso finished 2.822sec ahead of the Spaniard on the Misano track on Italy’s Adriatic coast with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow snatching third for Honda after pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo of Ducati crashed with two laps to go. Four-time world champion Marquez extends his overall world championship lead to 67 points ahead of Dovizioso, who moves up two places to take second spot from Italian Valentino Rossi, who finished in seventh place.

Rossi drops to third overall, with Lorenzo now in fourth. “I’m happy to have beaten Marquez and to win here where I had never managed to before,” said Dovizioso, who was born 60 kilometers up the road from the Misano track. Dovizioso -- runner-up last season to Marquez -- set the early pace after starting from the second row on the grid. He overtook his Ducati teammate Lorezno on the sixth lap and never looked back.

Lorenzo and Marquez closed the gap until the pole starter fell, leaving the way open for Dovizioso to follow on from his wins in the season-opening race in Qatar and the Czech MotoGP last month. “We’ve done good work towards the title,” said Marquez