MotoGP

Quartararo takes vital Mugello win, Bagnaia crashes from lead

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
9 min read

MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo dominated the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, as main rival Francesco Bagnaia crashed out early on.

Quartararo’s win snapped a three-race winning streak at Mugello for Ducati, which had none of its riders on the podium.

The race was held on a sombre day for the MotoGP paddock, a few hours on from the news that 19-year-old Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier had succumbed to injuries sustained in a qualifying crash the day prior.

Mugello MotoGP podium

It was also immediately prefaced by a thoroughly strange warm-up lap accident, as Avintia Ducati rookie Enea Bastianini was caught out by Johann Zarco’s braking while arriving onto the grid.

Bastianini slammed on the brakes himself, effectively causing a front flip and being thrown over the handlebars, from which he quickly got up unhurt. The incident is under investigation by the FIM stewards.

At the start, Quartararo used Yamaha’s upgraded holeshot device to great effect off the line, yet with a long run down to San Donato the Ducati’s famed power advantage kicked in and Bagnaia was first to arrive to the corner.

He led the opening lap, but then fell while trying to tip into Arrabbiata 2 the next time by.

Francesco Bagnaia's Ducati MotoGP Mugello

This handed Quartararo the lead, but Pramac Ducati man Zarco – who had lost out to Miguel Oliveira off the line but repassed him before the opening lap was over – was close enough to his compatriot to breeze past on the main straight.

Quartararo responded with an audacious – and successful – dive down the inside of Savelli, but Zarco again moved ahead on the main straight.

However, Quartararo’s second overtake – at the third corner, Poggio Secco – was early enough in the lap for him to establish his lead and begin to eke it out.

Fabio Quartararo Yamaha Mugello MotoGP 2021

By the halfway point in the race, it was up to nearly three seconds, with Zarco being kept busy by Oliveira running close behind.

A few laps later, as the duo were joined by the charging Suzuki pair of Joan Mir and Alex Rins, Oliveira slid down the inside of Zarco at Palagio, with Mir and Rins pulling off carbon-copy moves on the Frenchman at the very same corner over the next two laps.

Rins did face a Zarco counter-attack on the main straight, but swiftly reclaimed the position, before then crashing out at Bucine for what was his fourth successive retirement.

Mir ultimately pushed Oliveira to the end, but had to settle for third at the finish as the KTM rider took the chequered flag 2.6s behind Quartararo and scored KTM’s first podium of the campaign.

Oliveira was then penalised for falling foul of track limits on the final lap, and was temporarily demoted a spot – only for the stewards to announce a few minutes later that Mir had committed the same offence at the same time and put them back in their original order.

Zarco followed in fourth and Brad Binder made it two KTMs in the top five, with the sole remaining factory Ducati of Jack Miller a quiet sixth.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales and Tech3 KTM’s Danilo Petrucci were seventh through ninth.

Petronas Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, in what could be his final Mugello MotoGP race, almost ended a long-running streak of no top-10 finishes, as he profited from a late gravel trip for Pramac stand-in Michele Pirro and passed Tech3 KTM rider Iker Lecuona to take 10th.

A miserable race for Honda was highlighted by its top finisher being a struggling Pol Espargaro in 12th, with LCR rider Takaaki Nakagami having looked set for a top 10 finish before he crashed out on lap 20.

Like for Bagnaia, it was a second-lap exit for Marc Marquez, who lunged down the inside of Binder at the second corner but couldn’t make it through Poggio Secco alongside the KTM and slid out of the race.

His bike, sliding a few metres ahead of Marquez himself, got in the way of Franco Morbidelli and forced the Petronas rider to skip through the gravel, effectively ruling him out of points contention.

Quartararo now leads the standings by 24 points over Zarco, 26 points over Bagnaia and 31 points over Miller.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 23 21 41m16.344s 1m46.836s 0 25
2 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +2.592s 1m46.917s 0 20
3 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 23 0 +3s 1m47.028s 0 16
4 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 23 1 +3.535s 1m46.81s 0 13
5 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +4.903s 1m46.993s 0 11
6 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 23 0 +6.233s 1m47.139s 0 10
7 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 23 0 +8.03s 1m47.331s 0 9
8 Maverick Viñales Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 23 0 +17.239s 1m47.533s 0 8
9 Danilo Petrucci Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +23.296s 1m47.664s 0 7
10 Valentino Rossi Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 23 0 +25.146s 1m47.569s 0 6
11 Iker Lecuona Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 23 0 +25.152s 1m47.443s 0 5
12 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 23 0 +26.059s 1m47.741s 0 4
13 Michele Pirro Pramac Racing Ducati 23 0 +26.182s 1m47.745s 0 3
14 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 23 0 +29.4s 1m48.056s 0 2
15 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 23 0 +32.378s 1m47.983s 0 1
16 Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 23 0 +37.906s 1m47.993s 0 0
17 Luca Marini SKY VR46 Avintia Team Ducati 23 0 +50.306s 1m48.727s 0 0
Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 19 0 DNF 1m47.191s 0 0
Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 18 0 DNF 1m47.104s 0 0
Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1 1 DNF 0s 0 0
Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 1 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Enea Bastianini Avintia Esponsorama Racing Ducati 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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