Race report

MotoGP Italian GP: Bagnaia charges to victory as Bastianini mugs Martin for second

Francesco Bagnaia claimed his third successive MotoGP Italian Grand Prix victory, as Enea Bastianini made it a 1-2 for Ducati with a last corner move on Jorge Martin.

Bagnaia claimed the lead at Turn 2 on the opening lap and never looked back, taking the chequered flag by 0.8s over team-mate Bastianini, as championship leader Martin had to settle for third.

At the start of the race, Bagnaia made a brilliant launch from fifth on the grid, taking the outside line into Turn 1 to shoot up to second position, before sending his factory Ducati up the inside of Martin to snatch the lead.

Once in front, Bagnaia set a series of fastest laps to break away from Martin, although the Pramac rider was able to cut his deficit back to 0.6s at the halfway stage of the race.

There was a big scare for Bagnaia with three laps to go as Martin closed the gap between the two to under three tenths, threatening to deny him a home victory.

But Bagnaia was able to respond to Martin’s pace on the next tour to pull himself clear and complete a double win at Mugello, having also won Saturday’s sprint race with a similarly-brilliant start.

Martin looked set to finish second behind his chief championship rival, but Bastianini dived by at the final corner to snatch second from the Spaniard and complete a 1-2 for Ducati.

Marc Marquez spent the majority of the race circulating behind the second factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini, even making a mistake at Turn 1 on lap 3 and bringing Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta into play.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

After resisting the advances of Acosta, who himself ran wide at the final corner a few laps later, Marquez again started piling pressure on Bastianini, but struggled to find a way through on the Italian.

It was only with six laps remaining that Marquez finally got through on Bastianini with a typical block pass into the opening right-hander.

However, Bastianini never allowed Marquez to run away with third position and on the penultimate lap he nudged the Gresini rider aside before charging after Martin.

Acosta was once again the top rider from the KTM contingent in fifth, as Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli celebrated the best result of the season in sixth, ahead of VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales couldn’t convert his front row start into a top position, dropping behind di Giannantonio in the latter stages to end up eighth. Alex Marquez took ninth for Gresini Ducati as factory KTM rider Brad Binder completed the top 10.

Aleix Espargaro was 11th on an underwhelming weekend for Aprilia, as Trackhouse Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira ended up 12th and 14th respectively, split by VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi.

Alex Rins took home the final championship point in 15th for Yamaha.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The Japanese marque was unable to convert its impressive practice pace into a strong finish, with team-mate Fabio Quartararo only 18th behind KTM race rider Jack Miller and wildcard entrant Pol Espargaro.

LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, Honda rider Joan Mir and Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez were the only riders to retire from the race, the last-named furiously gesticulating at his pitcrew after pulling into the pits on lap four.

MotoGP Italian GP - Race results

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	23	-				25
2	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	23	+0.799 0.799	0.799			20
3	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	23	+0.924 0.924	0.125			16
4	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	23	+2.064 2.064	1.140			13
5	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	23	+7.501 7.501	5.437			11
6	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	23	+9.890 9.890	2.389			10
7	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	23	+10.076 10.076	0.186			9
8	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	23	+11.683 11.683	1.607			8
9	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	23	+13.535 13.535	1.852			7
10	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	23	+15.901 15.901	2.366			6
11	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	23	+19.182 19.182	3.281			5
12	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	23	+20.307 20.307	1.125			4
13	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	23	+20.346 20.346	0.039			3
14	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	23	+23.292 23.292	2.946			2
15	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	23	+23.613 23.613	0.321			1
16	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	23	+28.417 28.417	4.804
17	P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	44	KTM	23	+28.778 28.778	0.361
18	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	23	+30.622 30.622	1.844
19	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	23	+31.457 31.457	0.835
20	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	23	+32.310 32.310	0.853
21	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	23	+46.724 46.724	14.414
dnf	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	9	14 laps			Retirement
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	6	17 laps			Retirement
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	4	19 laps			Retirement
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