BAGNAIA WINS IN ITALY
On home soil Francesco Bagnaia has taken an emotional victory in front of his Italian fans, making the win even more special, he did it on an Italian bike.
It was a dream victory for Bagnaia with the win more than making up for his crash from race winning contention in France two weeks ago.
His second win in three races volts Bagnaia back into the championship contention, however the two men at the top of the table Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro also finished on the podium.
It was not an easy victory for Bagnaia who dropped to ninth on the opening lap of the race and had to make his way past championship rivals and over half a dozen fellow Ducatis.
Enea Bastianini has taken three wins already this season, however it was his rookie teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio that took his maiden pole from fellow rookie Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, making it an all-Italian front-row at home. Incredibly it was a Ducati top five lockout.
Off the line Di Giannantonio made a good launch and emerged with the lead from Turn 1 despite an attack from the VR46 duo.
At Turn 4 the VR46 drivers swapped Marini got making the move at Turn 4. Bezzecchi was on a charge early and quickly got the lead off Di Giannantonio.
Behind these three Quartararo had a strong first lap and sat fourth ahead of Espargaro on Lap 2.
The reigning champion on his nimble Yamaha was not content with fourth, Quartararo was very strong early on the cold tyres and snatched third from Di Giannantonio.
Despite falling back to ninth on lap 1 Bagnaia was unfazed and quickly got his head down, and on lap four made his way by Espargaro and into the top five.
Ahead Quartararo was moving forward alsomoving past Marini on the same lap.
With the lead in sight Bagnaia stepped his pace up a notch and on lap 5 overtook Di Giannantonio and then pulled off a big move into San Donato passing both Quartararo and Marini to move into second spot.
It took just a couple more laps to catch up to his fellow VR46 academy rider Bezzecchi and overtake him on lap 9.
Quartararo did not want to see his championship rival take off into the distance and on lap 11 he also made his way past Bezzecchi.
Although he didn’t have too much pace early, Espargaro was now in the groove dispatching of Di Giannantonio he was now in the top five and caught the scrapping Bezzecchi and Marini. He soon moved by them both.
Enea Bastianini had worked his way into contention from the back end of the top 10, he sat just behind the Ducati bunch however he tucked the front of his Ducati through Materassi, on Lap 14, he was out.
Out front a relentless battle took place in the closing laps, Bagnaia and Quartararo trading tenths lap after lap, Quartararo giving his all was unable to close in on the factory Ducati man.
In the end Bagnaia’s margin of victory was 0.6s to Quartararo. Espargaro finished just under 2s further back to record his fourth straight podium.
Johann Zarco moved up late on to finish fourth ahead of Marini. KTM’s Brad Binder made up nine placed on lap 1 and was rewarded with a sixth-place finish.
Takaaki Nakagami was the best placed Honda, he beat Miguel Oliveira and – in his last race before yet more surgery on his right arm – Marc Marquez who rounded out the top 10.
It took a video review to find Di Giannantonio pipped Maverick Vinales to 11th. Jorge Martin, Alex and Aussie Jack Miller rounded out the point scorers.
The other Aussie Remy Gardner was 19th.
Notably both Team Suzuki riders crashed on lap 8.
For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action.
