It was a roller-coaster weekend full of high drama, big crashes and emotional moments just outside Rimini on Italy's Adriatic coast as the 13th round of the MotoGP series played out in brilliant autumn sunshine at the beautiful Misano circuit, mow renamed in memory of flamboyant Italian rider Marco Simoncelli, killed at Sepang during the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix.
MOTOGP
The drama started on the grid as Karel Abraham's Ducati gave trouble; his crew pushed the bike into pit lane to work on it (which meant he would have to start from there) while the rest of the 20-strong field were sent off on a second sighting lap.
Then pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa's crew had problems getting the tyre-warmer off the front tyre of his Honda; once unleashed, Pedrosa went screaming round after the rest of the field but couldn't catch the safety car before the grid formed up - which meant the top qualifier would have to start from the back of the field.
Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo, who'd qualified second, less than 0.02 seconds slower than Pedrosa, led the field into Turn 1, with Ducati's Valentino Rossi and Honda privateer Stephan Bradl - each of whom had made a brilliant start off the second row - hot on his tailpipe.
Right at the back of the field, Abraham came out of pit lane like his tail was on fire - and promptly threw the Ducati up the road, less than 10 seconds into the race.
But all eyes were on Pedrosa, who'd scythed through half the field in less than a lap when Hector Barbera lost the front of his privateer Ducati and skittled the Honda, ending Pedrosa's race after just 49 seconds.
And the demolition derby went on, as Speed Master’s Mattia Pasini dumped the second ART in the kitty litter on lap two and Cal Crutchlow disposed of the Tech 3 Yamaha two laps later.
Crutchlow’s team mate Andrea Dovizioso, however, was hanging on to Bradl, as Honda privateer Alvaro Bautista passed Yamaha's Ben Spies for fifth. But by lap eight Lorenzo had pulled out a lead over Rossi, who was working hard to keep Bradl and Dovizioso behind him at his home circuit.
On lap 17, Bautista closed to within striking distance of Dovizioso and was looking for a way past; he stalked the Yamaha for half a lap, then blitzed Dovizioso for fourth and set off after Bradl. Within two laps he was all over the German like a rash, riding like a man possessed, and simply muscled his way past into third.
But, with seven laps to go, Bradl, Dovizioso and Spies were all closing in to challenge for the final podium spot. Dovizioso and Spies passed Bradl, whose tyres were shredded after the ride of his life, with three laps to go, and Dovizioso took the fight to Bautista on the last lap.
Lorenzo took the chequered flag, unchallenged, to extend his championship lead over the luckless Pedrosa to 38 points with five races to go, while 4.4 seconds later, an ecstatic Rossi delighted the Misano tifosi with his best result yet for Ducati in a dry race.
But the podium had to wait while the stewards pored over the photo-finish prints, finally awarding third to Bautista by 0.003sec - three thousandths of a second!
Spies led home Bradl, Rossi's team mate Nicky Hayden and Honda World Superbike rider Jonathan Rea, who finished an impressive eighth in his first Grand Prix.
MOTO2
There was more drama at the start of the 600cc race as South African rider Steven Odendaal (AJR) crashed out on lap one; he wasn't hurt, but the bike was a wreck.
Four laps into the race the Honda engine of Gino Rea's Suter let go, spewing oil all over the track, and the red flags came out. By the time the marshals had cleaned up the mess there was time for only a 14-lap sprint, which meant that tyres would no longer be an issue.
The grid formed up, without Odendaal and Rea, with Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) - who was leading at the end of lap three - on pole, and Marc Marquez (Suter), Pol Espargaró and Takaaki Nakagami (each on a Kalex) rounding out the front row.
Iannone led Márquez and Espargaró's team mate Esteve Rabat into Turn 1 but, two laps in, Márquez had a huge wobble coming on to the main straight, letting Rabat and Espargaró through.
Espargaró soon took advantage to nip into second and pursue the leader, who was pulling out a gap. Meanwhile Suter rider Thomas Lüthi and Kalex team mates Mika Kallio and Scott Redding were closing in on Márquez.
However, the championship leader fought back, and passed Rabat for third to set off after his main championship rivals. Motobi rider Johann Zarco muscled his way past Redding - on the same eventful lap as Speed Up rider Elena Rosell and Tech 3's Xavier Siméon crashed out.
With four laps to go Espargaró and Márquez were all over the rear wheel of Iannone's Speed Up, setting up a nail-biting finish. Espargaró who pounced first to lead the trio, with Márquez also squeezing past Iannone into second. But was Marquez who got the best of a cut-and-thrust final last lap to finish 0.359 seconds ahead of Espargaró and 1.634 seconds clear of Iannone, to take his seventh win of the season and move to 53 points clear at the top of the championship.
MOTO3
Cortese got the holeshot into Turn 1 as drama unfolded at the back of the grid, with Mahindra’s Danny Webb, Kevin Calia (Honda), TSR-Honda rider Alan Techer and Giulian Pedone (Suter Honda) all crashed out.
But FTR Honda's Romano Fenati was pushing his way through the field to take the lead off Cortese, Luigi Morciano (Ioda), Stefano Valtulini (Honda) and Pedone’s team mate Alex Márquez also crashed out.
For the first 10 laps the refused to settle down as Cortese and Fenati kept swopping while Luis Salom (Kalex KTM), Niccolò Antonelli (FTR Honda) and Miguel Oliveira (Suter Honda) disputed third.
After the halfway point, Fenati and Cortese pulled out a small gap over the pursuing pack, while FTR Honda rider Maverick Viñales made his way through the pack.
Then suddenly Fenati and Cortese seemed to slow as the pack closed right up to them. With just three laps to go, Cortese made his move on Fenati and the young Italian was pushed back to fifth as Alex Rins (Suter Honda), Salom and Viñales muscled their way past.
The final laps turned into a five-way battle Cortese desperately hung on to a tenuous lead and Viñales tried a last-corner dive up the inside but ran wide on the exit, letting Salom Fenati and Rins (who literally pushed the luckless Vinales out of the way) through to take second, third and fourth respectively.
Cortese's third win of the season gave the German rider a 46 point lead at the top of the championship table over Viñales.
South African teenager Brad Binder was bitterly disappointed to finish 16th, just out of the points, after a magnificent ride in which his lap times improved with almost every lap.
Nevertheless, after string of DNF's, to finish at all was in some respects a victory, and the Potchefstroom youngster said afterwards he was looking forward to the next round at Motorland Aragon - a circuit he has never seen, let alone ridden.
RESULTS – MOTOGP
1 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha – 42min49.836
2 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Ducati +4.398sec
3 Alvaro Bautista (Spain) Honda +6.055
4 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Yamaha +6.058
5 Ben Spies (US) Yamaha +7.543
6 Stefan Bradl (Germany) Honda +13.272
7 Nicky Hayden (US) Ducati +40.907
8 Jonathan Rea (Britain) Honda +43.162
9 Randy de Puniet (France) ART +1min09.627
10 Michele Pirro (Italy) FTR +1min13.605
11 Colin Edwards (US) Suter +1min16.695
12 Yonny Hernandez (Colombia) BQR +1min19.073
13 James Ellison (Britain) ART +1min19.408
14 Danilo Petrucci (Italy) Ioda-Suter +1lap
15 David Salom (Spain) BQR +1 lap
MOTO2
1 Marc Marquez (Spain) Suter – 23min11.278
2 Pol Espargaro (Spain) Kalex +0.359sec
3 Andrea Iannone (Italy) Speed Up +1.634
4 Mika Kallio (Finland) Kalex +5.078
5 Esteve Rabat (Spain) Kalex +5.246
6 Dominique Aegerter (Switzerland) Suter +5.570
7 Scott Redding (Britain) Kalex +6.364
8 Bradley Smith (Britain) Tech3 +6.853
9 Thomas Luthi (Switzerland) Suter +7.480
10 Johann Zarco (France) Motobi +7.989
MOTO3
1 Sandro Cortese (Germany) KTM – 40min22.100
2 Luis Salom (Spain) Kalex KTM +0.467sec
3 Romano Fenati (Italy) FTR Honda +0.937
4 Alex Rins (Spain) Suter Honda +0.974
5 Maverick Vinales (Spain) FTR Honda +1.145
6 Jonas Folger (Germany) Kalex KTM +1.180
7 Efren Vasquez (Spain) FTR Honda +1.315
8 Niccolo Antonelli (Italy) FTR Honda +3.983
9 Miguel Oliveira (Portugal) Suter Honda +4.376
10 Arthur Sissis (Australia) KTM +10.872