MotoGP

Bagnaia boosts MotoGP title bid with Italian GP victory

by Matt Beer
4 min read

Pecco Bagnaia put the disappointment of his early crash in last year’s MotoGP Italian Grand Prix behind him to take a home victory at Mugello for Ducati.

Bagnaia felt his lap one fall while leading in Italy a year ago was crucial in his eventual championship defeat to Fabio Quartararo, and put the 2021 crash down to not being fully focused following the death of Jason Dupasquier in a Moto3 crash the previous day.

This time Bagnaia made no such mistakes as he led Quartararo home by 0.635s to take a second victory in three races.

After the wild circumstances of Saturday’s wet/dry qualifying session, likely race-pace benchmarks Bagnaia, Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro had to try to make quick progress from fifth through seventh on grid.

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Surprise front row trio Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini held on well, swapping the lead between all three of them through lap one before VR46 duo Bezzecchi and Marini established themselves in a brief VR46 team 1-2 on its home ground in the first Italian MotoGP race since team figurehead Valentino Rossi’s retirement from racing.

Espargaro made the most assertive early progress of the race day favourites before Quartararo and Bagnaia outstripped him.

Yamaha’s lack of straightline speed didn’t do Quartararo many favours, and Bagnaia was able to pass both the championship leader and Marini in one move down the main straight.

Bezzecchi held onto the lead for over one-third of the race before Bagnaia managed to squeeze ahead under braking into the first corner.

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He didn’t manage to make much of a break before Quartararo reached second, but had enough pace to keep the Yamaha at a safe distance until the chequered flag.

Espargaro eventually made it past Bezzecchi too to complete the podium, with Johann Zarco’s Pramac Ducati doing likewise to take fourth ahead of Bezzecchi and Marini.

Poleman Di Giannantonio drifted right back to 11th, which was still his best finish in MotoGP, claiming it in a photo finish with Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia.

Brad Binder scorched from 16th to seventh on lap one, and managed to finish there as the best KTM.

Takaaki Nakagami was the top Honda for LCR in eighth ahead of Miguel Oliveira’s KTM, with the factory Honda of Marc Marquez a muted 10th and team-mate Pol Espargaro crashing from the midfield early on.

Suzuki had a second consecutive terrible race. Alex Rins and Joan Mir made no real progress from their lowly qualifying positions and then both crashed within minutes of each other.

It was a bad day for several of Ducati’s usual lead contenders. Title protagonist Enea Bastianini crashed out, Jack Miller fell to nearly last on lap one and finished 15th, and Jorge Martin set a new MotoGP speed trap record of 226mph but couldn’t do better than 13th place.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 23 15 41m18.923s 1m46.588s 0 25
2 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 23 0 +0.635s 1m46.868s 0 20
3 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 23 0 +1.983s 1m46.971s 0 16
4 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 23 0 +2.59s 1m46.97s 0 13
5 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 23 8 +3.067s 1m46.676s 0 11
6 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 23 0 +3.875s 1m47.081s 0 10
7 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +4.067s 1m47.225s 0 9
8 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 23 0 +10.944s 1m47.046s 0 8
9 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +11.256s 1m46.968s 0 7
10 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 23 0 +11.8s 1m47.133s 0 6
11 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 23 0 +12.916s 1m47.031s 0 5
12 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 23 0 +12.917s 1m47.525s 0 4
13 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 23 0 +17.24s 1m47.619s 0 3
14 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 23 0 +17.568s 1m47.741s 0 2
15 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 23 0 +17.687s 1m47.742s 0 1
16 Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 23 0 +20.265s 1m47.619s 0 0
17 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 23 0 +20.296s 1m47.626s 0 0
18 Michele Pirro Austrian Junior Cup Ducati 23 0 +21.305s 1m47.824s 0 0
19 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +30.548s 1m48.051s 0 0
20 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 23 0 +31.011s 1m48.272s 0 0
21 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +42.723s 1m48.063s 0 0
22 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Aprilia 22 0 +1 lap 1m48.586s 0 0
Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 13 0 DNF 1m46.91s 0 0
Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 7 0 DNF 1m47.129s 0 0
Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 7 0 DNF 1m47.426s 0 0
Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 4 0 DNF 1m48.048s 0 0
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