Marquez Mugello Masterclass: Record breaking 100th pole and Sprint win

Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello has not been a happy hunting ground for Marc Marquez, but against all odds, the MotoGP championship leader snatched pole position ahead of his Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia. With this, Marquez became the first rider in MotoGP history to achieve 100 pole positions. The third position went to Gresini’s Alex Marquez, who was 0.083 seconds behind his brother Marc Marquez. 

Marquez continued his good run as he won the Sprint Race at Mugello while his brother Alex split the two factory Ducati team members as Bagnaia had to settle for third place. 

MotoGP Italy Qualifiers: Marquez creates history

One of the most dominant riders in the history of MotoGP and the third most decorated premier class rider, Marc Marquez, created a new all-time lap record of 1:44.500. There was a tussle between Marquez, the local favourite Bagnaia and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, but the Frenchman started to lose steam. At one point in time, Bagnaia clocked 1:44.22,8, giving the home fans something to cheer about, but Marquez managed to edge him out as it was the six-time world champion’s sixth pole of the season. Finally, it was Ducati 1-2, followed by Alex Marquez and Maverick Vinales of Tech3, who rounded up the top 5 positions. 

MotoGP Italy Sprint Race: Marquez makes a comeback

It looked like it was going to be the Marc Marquez show from start to finish in the Sprint Race, but even before the lights went out, there was a twist in the plot. Marquez was busy checking something on his bike, which resulted in a slow start. Taking advantage of this, Bagnaia and Alex Marquez zipped passed him. Marc Marquez had switched on the afterburners as he was gunning for his brother and teammate to regain first place. In lap 2, all three were elbow distance from each other on Turn 1 as Alex took P1 while Bagnaia dropped to P3. In Lap 4, Marc had enough of tailgating his brother and decided it was time to take matters into his as he overtook the Gresini rider. There was a battle building up for P3 as Vinales was aggressively attacking Bagania, but the Ducati rider kept his cool and came third behind the Sprint winner Marc Marquez and runners-up Alex Marquez.