We may be stating the obvious but the racing weekend at Mugello, Italy, was nothing short of a perfect outing for Francesco Bagnaia. The defending champion annihilated the competition from turn 2 of lap 1 and took the chequered flag followed by the Pramac Racing duo, Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco.
Mugello MotoGP: Perfetto Bagnaia
Starting from pole position, Ducati’s Bagnaia was blitz passed by Jack Miller when the lights were out. The early signs of the KTM rider’s flying start were quickly neutralized in turn 2 as first Bagania and then Jorge Martin overtook the Australian. Sadly, KTM didn’t have any answers to the Ducati’s blistering pace. With the battle for third position brewing between the likes of Alex and Marc Marquez, Luca Marini and Miller, this further cemented the top two positions as Bagnaia took a slender lead of 0.4 seconds over Martin. There was looking back for the factory Ducati rider as he sealed his second consecutive victory at Mugello finishing 1.067 seconds ahead of Martin. It was a perfect race weekend for Bagnaia as he was the fastest on Saturday qualifying, won the sprint race and successfully retained the Italian GP title.
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Mugello MotoGP: Disaster Strikes Marquez Brothers
Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez was lucky to avoid a collision on lap 3 as he went wide so that he didn’t crash into his brother Marc Marquez, Miller and VR46’s Luca Marini when they were scuffling for third place. Marc was showing his typical aggressive self and was involved in an intense dogfight with Marini. Unfortunately, three laps later the Honda rider’s gamble didn’t pay off when he decided to take a wide turn to overtake the VR46 ride as he only managed to slide out of the race.
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On lap 12, younger brother Alex Marquez was showing promising signs as he started attacking Marini for the third spot and he finally managed to steal the final podium position. Before Marquez could settle down, Alex crashed out at turn two on lap 15.
Mugello MotoGP: Zarco’s late charge
With the first two spots virtually sealed by Bagnaia and Martin, Pramac’s Zarco decided to kick-start his signature late attack and force Marini to relinquish his third place. The final spot was up for grabs and Zarco didn’t need a second invitation as he threw everything he had in his armoury and finally overtook the VR46 rider on lap 18. Marini had no choice but to contend with P4.
KTM’s Brad Binder came fifth as the South African managed to claw his way back in the race after starting from 11th place. Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Miller finished sixth and seventh while the championship challenger Marco Bezzecchi could only muster a disappointing eighth spot. Ducati’s Enea Bastianini and Franco Morbidelli rounded up the top 10 by taking ninth and tenth positions respectively. The latter beat his Yamaha teammate and former world champion Fabio Quartararo who finished eleventh.
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