Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP‘s Valentino Rossi was proud to claim third place in only his second Virtual MotoGP race. This edition, staged at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, was less successful for Maverick Viñales. Multiple crashes ended his chance to add another podium result to his name, but he managed to finish in sixth place.
Rossi started the race from fifth, sandwiched between team-mate Viñales and Marc Marquez. He lost some time due to a race incident in the opening lap, but thanks to some earlier practice with the MotoGP20 game, The Doctor showed off his fresh skills by riding a mostly faultless race. He fought his way up from eighth to fourth place and stalked the leading three riders. When Fabio Quartararo crashed in front of him, the Misano hero was there to snatch up third place and finish 4.687s from first.
Viñales started from fourth place with a clear view of the top 3, but his hopes of battling at the front were soon taken away from him. He got involved in a typical Virtual MotoGP multiple-rider crash in the first corner, and it took him a bit of time to get into the rhythm. Despite suffering further crashes in the early laps, which put him in eleventh position with a 4.718s gap, he pushed as hard as he could and gradually picked up places to still secure sixth over the line, 0.566s behind the rider in fifth place and 14.313s from the lead.
