SCARPERIA, Italy — World champion Jorge Lorenzo passed fellow Spaniard Marc Marquez on the final straight of the Italian Grand Prix to win a MotoGP race that went right down to the finish Sunday.
Marquez passed Lorenzo briefly on the final corner but Lorenzo pushed his Movistar Yamaha ahead once the road became straight again and won by just 0.019 seconds at the Mugello circuit.
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"I thought Marquez would have more energy at the end when he passed me," Lorenzo said. "I thought to stay in second place and take the points but finally I remembered a little bit 2005 when I was in 250 and I passed (Alex) De Angelis in this corner in the last chicane for second and I thought maybe I could do the same.
"I tried a crazy move and it was OK but I was going right in the second corner of the chicane," Lorenzo added. "My bike was quite fast and I could get past Marc for an unexpected victory."
Andrea Iannone of Italy finished a distant third, 4.742 seconds behind.
Pole sitter Valentino Rossi was right behind Lorenzo in second midway through the race when he ran into technical problems, with white smoke blowing out of his bike. The seven-time champion in the elite series had to return to his garage and retire, a huge disappointment for the majority of the more than 100,000 spectators.
Lorenzo increased his lead over Marquez to 10 points, with Rossi 37 points back in third.
Lorenzo, Rossi’s teammate, blew an engine during warmup.
"I was very unfortunate," Rossi said. "I had the same problem as Jorge but his happened in the warmup and mine during the race. It’s a huge loss. … It’s always disappointing to have a breakdown but to do it here, in front of my fans, hurts even more. Especially because I felt really fast and I could definitely have won."
French driver Johann Zarco won the Moto2 race and Brad Binder of South Africa took the Moto3 race.