When it rains, there is no wisdom that can save you. You soldier on and take what fate has in store. Running in rain is necessary but rider experience and machine testing for that condition are weak minority partners. As bikes came to the grid for the 2015 Italian Grand Prix at Misano, a sprinkle of rain appeared. Jorge Lorenzo, who now defines good starts, promptly led through lap 6, at which point rain was calling for a bike change. Most riders changed on lap 7, after which Lorenzo climbed back to lead for laps 10 to 15. Everyone expected that, in a dry race, Lorenzo would lead and Marquez would shadow, while the two dropped the rest of the field. But it rained. All that stuff about how Misano is a Yamaha track became words without force. Meanwhile, Bradley Smith on the Tech 3 Yamaha stayed on slicks, leading lap 8 while the others were leaping from bike to bike. He then sank miserably to 21st as his slicks slithered and spun. Lately, Smith has remarked how well his bike handles (“It was fast right out of the truck”), so presumably he had the confidence to handle this lack of grip. Then, about lap 17, as a dry line was appearing and the others were musing privately over if it was time to pit again (this time for a bike on slicks), Smith began to move up smartly—no waiting! 
Marc Marquez was handling the changes in a standard way, getting his rain bike on lap 7, switching to dry on lap 18, and pressing on. After Lorenzo led laps 10 to 15, Valentino Rossi led laps 16-20, changing bikes on lap 21, which dropped him to 5th. Lorenzo, going out after his bike change on “cold” tires (cold in the sense of not having a full race-condition temperature distribution), used more grip than in fact existed and was out. This left Marquez leading, which he did to the end. He won by 7.288 seconds over (may I have the envelope, please?) the constant Smith, whose contrarian tire strategy had put him 2nd. Scott Redding was deep in the doldrums—23rd on laps 7 and 8—but after lap 16 he had moved up fast, to 4th on lap 21. Redding had crashed and remounted just as everyone else was heading in for new bikes, so he headed in too. Then he forged on into 3rd. And Loris Baz, who spent last year on a Kawasaki factory Superbike, likewise advanced from downfield, moving up fast from lap 16 to finish 4th. After the rational, well-judged four practices and qualifying, with their beard-pulling dry-track decisions as to bike set-up, tire choice, and the rest of it (think of the computer crews in those middle garage rooms, optimizing everything with thousands of keystrokes), rain made it all an improv joke, putting the above Russian novel in its place (so many characters, each with confusing names, doing confusing things). 
Bottom line: Lorenzo got no points, and Rossi’s modest haul for 5th now puts him 23 ahead of Lorenzo and that much closer to the championship. Marquez, now far enough out of the points to say, “I have nothing to lose, so I can take risks,” showed us what we already know: that he can win races. Drama? Yes. Racing? Not…really. But into each life some rain must fall. CHATTER MARC MARQUEZ “It was a very strange race but I'm happy with the end result. It is difficult to explain everything that happened during the race but I think the key was the second tire change—from wets to slicks. That was where we made a difference and—believe it or not—it was not me who decided everything! The team informed me of the situation with the pit board and helped me decide when to come in to change bikes, and I have to thank them! Also Honda, because we keep working and doing our best, even though our title chances are slim, so our target to the end of the year remains; The more wins, the better!” 
VALENTINO ROSSI “It‘s true that the championship is a lot more important that winning this race, it‘s the main target. Unfortunately Jorge crashed and I was able to gain another 11-points. This is good for the championship, but it‘s a shame to miss out on the podium, because I wanted to arrive in the top three in front of all the spectators. It was a crazy race and when you have to change the bike, in this case twice, you need luck and rapid thinking to understand the situation. Fifth is still a good result and we‘re looking forward to the next race in Aragon. There are still five races left and unfortunately Lorenzo has the ability to win at every single one and Marquez is also always strong, so there are still a lot of points left to fight for. Aragon is always a difficult track, but we did some tests there and my lap times weren‘t so bad, so we have to try to do a good race and arrive on the podium.” JORGE LORENZO “Two races with bad luck in a row, because the circumstances were wet and abnormal. In Silverstone I didn‘t have the confidence and here I didn‘t have the pace to warm up the tire well, so I entered the corner with slicks that were still cold and lost the rear. I think I‘ve been unlucky this year in general, but especially these last two races, because I could have won both or finished second, but that‘s racing. In previous years, my rivals in the championship crashed and this year it‘s me who‘s unlucky, but all is not lost. If I win all the coming races I can still become the World Champion and it wouldn‘t matter in what position Valentino would finish in.” 
SCOTT REDDING “Where do you start after a race like that? When it started to rain I knew I had nothing to lose and pushed hard on the slicks. But I pushed too much and couldn’t stop the bike before I entered the gravel and crashed. I thought that was race over but got back on as quickly as I could and I could see that a couple of guys still hadn’t passed me, so knew I was still in a good position. I changed to the rain tyres and had a really bad feeling. I couldn’t get them to working temperature and when I did the track had already started to dry. I switched back to slicks thinking I’d got no chance and then suddenly I saw P4. I thought it was a mistake but then saw seven seconds to Baz and got my head down to catch him in case it rained again. Then I’m in third and I certainly didn’t expect that when I woke up this morning. It’s a great feeling for me and especially the team because they have deserved this for sticking by me all season.” BRADLEY SMITH “I am thrilled with this finish as I feel that I earned it today even though it was a big gamble! It was very difficult to make the right decisions in the race and I tried to make a few calculations in my head. I looked at the sky before it started and I said to myself that if it rains, it will only be for a short while and I hoped it would dry quickly. However, I still didn't know how the new surface would be in the wet. My decision to stay out was initially because I missed the lap when Jorge and Vale pitted so I carried on and I believed that the rain had slowed down slightly. At this point, I already had lost a lot of time, therefore I thought it would be best to wait a few laps and see what happens and when it stopped I knew the gamble could work as I realized that they might have to pit twice. Furthermore, I kept saying to myself that luck favors the brave, which motivated me even further and here I am! My race position kept going up and to finally come home in 2nd is very special. This result is one of my greatest and it's a truly emotional moment. In Phillip Island I just finished the race and got the podium but here I had to ride really smoothly and with skill as well as talent in these conditions. We have to take opportunities like these because as a satellite team we work really hard for 5th or 6th every race, but the rostrum is just out of reach. So, I'm even more delighted to give this finish to the team and the sponsors and I can't wait to get back out on track at the next round.” RESULTS: 2015 GRAND PRIX OF SAN MARINO>
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | MARQUEZ Marc | 93 | SPA | 25 | Repsol Honda Team | 48'23.819 |
| 2 | SMITH Bradley | 38 | GBR | 20 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | +7.288 |
| 3 | REDDING Scott | 45 | GBR | 16 | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | +18.793 |
| 4 | BAZ Loris | 76 | FRA | 13 | Athina Forward Racing | +26.427 |
| 5 | ROSSI Valentino | 46 | ITA | 11 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | +33.196 |
| 6 | PETRUCCI Danilo | 9 | ITA | 10 | Pramac Racing | +35.087 |
| 7 | IANNONE Andrea | 29 | ITA | 9 | Ducati Team | +36.527 |
| 8 | DOVIZIOSO Andrea | 4 | ITA | 8 | Ducati Team | +37.434 |
| 9 | PEDROSA Dani | 26 | SPA | 7 | Repsol Honda Team | +39.516 |
| 10 | ESPARGARO Aleix | 41 | SPA | 6 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | +39.692 |
| 11 | CRUTCHLOW Cal | 35 | GBR | 5 | LCR Honda | +41.995 |
| 12 | MILLER Jack | 43 | AUS | 4 | LCR Honda | +46.075 |
| 13 | DI MEGLIO Mike | 63 | FRA | 3 | Avintia Racing | +48.381 |
| 14 | VINALES Maverick | 25 | SPA | 2 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | +52.325 |
| 15 | BAUTISTA Alvaro | 19 | SPA | 1 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | +53.348 |
| 16 | BRADL Stefan | 6 | GER | 0 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | +58.828 |
| 17 | HAYDEN Nicky | 69 | USA | 0 | Aspar MotoGP Team | +1'02.649 |
| 18 | BARBERA Hector | 8 | SPA | 0 | Avintia Racing | +1'04.768 |
| 19 | LAVERTY Eugene | 50 | IRE | 0 | Aspar MotoGP Team | +1'05.677 |
| 20 | CORTI Claudio | 71 | ITA | 0 | Yamaha Forward Racing | 1 Lap |
| 21 | ABRAHAM Karel | 17 | CZE | 0 | AB Motoracing | 1 Lap |
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