Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini win 100km dei Campioni

Over the weekend the sixth edition of the ‘100km dei Campioni’ was held at Valentino Rossi’s ranch where 42 riders from the world of MotoGP and support classes took part in the season-ending fun event watched by more than 1,200 fans.

Unsurprisingly, Valentino Rossi was victorious once again, teaming up with his step-brother Luca Marini for the outing. The brothers claimed their victory ahead of Franco Morbidelli and Andrea Migno.

The race started in ‘endurance’ style with riders running towards their bikes. Elia Bartolini got the holeshot, making the first corner ahead of the chasing pack followed by Rossi, Migno and Stefano Manzi.

The first laps of the race were littered with thrills and spills as Manzi crashed and Rossi managed to overtake Bartolini. During the first bike swap Marini, teaming up with his brother Valentino, got into the lead at the front of the pack, closely chased by Morbidelli and Lorenzo Baldassarri.

During the fifty laps of the race which make up the 100km distance Marini’s bike stopped and Morbidelli took advantage of Luca’s mistake to gain the lead of the race. Elsewhere grip issues for Bartolini allowed American pairing JD Beach and Sammy Halbert to comeback to the action and take third position.

In the last few laps of the race, Rossi managed to reduce the gap with Migno, getting very close to the Academy rider and getting his head down for the thrilling last laps of the most exciting edition of the 100km dei Campioni.

With another bike swap done (the change-over of riders on the motorcycles mark the beginning of the last five laps which decide the podium positions), it was Marini took the chequered flag first followed by Morbidelli a few tenths behind and JD Beach fighting with Baldassari until the last bits of the last lap.

Morbidelli made a mistake and a trackside cone got stuck in his bike. This allowed Marini to overtake Franco and grab the lead of the race which he managed to keep until the finish line. Second place went to Morbidelli and Migno, six seconds behind. The American pair of Beach and Halbert gained the third step of the podium ahead of Bartolini and Baldassarri with a gap of just over a second.

Fifth position went the way of Mattia Pasini and Stefano Manzi, sixth was claimed by Celestino Vietti and Marco Bezzecchi.