Bagnaia scores home hat-trick

Francesco Bagnaia was utterly dominant in Mugello, never being threatened on his way to a third straight Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix victory.

A powerful exit out of the first corner saw Bagnaia fly from fifth to first on the opening lap and there was no stopping him on the blue Ducati.

Jorge Martin threatened to come close in the closing laps, but the #1 had more than enough pace in the tank to triple the race lead.

Racing with a Kiss tribute, Bagnaia marked his home hat-trick by playing the air guitar in his best rendition of Gene Simmons.

To make the celebrates sweeter, teammate Enea Bastianini managed to snatch second from Martin on the very last corner to make it a Ducati 1-2.

Martin appeared to get a good jump, but he could not stop the leaders from going three wide into Turn 1 with both factory Ducatis either side.

However, by Turn 2 Bagnaia was unstoppable and flew into the lead to the delight of the home crowd.

After a clean first lap the Bagnaia led Martin, Bastianini and Marquez, while the leading non Ducati was fast-starting Tech3 of Pedro Acosta and Miller moved up six spots from 19th to 13th.

But before too long the Aussie had slumped from 13th to outside of the points in 17th.

A tight battle emerged between Marquez and Acosta after the #93 made a failed attempt at snatching third.

By Lap 5 Bagnaia was setting a hot pace and increased his lead to beyond half a second, while Acosta released the pressure off Marquez by running wide at the final corner.

Augusto Fernandez was the first retirement with dramas on his Tech3 KTM, while Joan Mir’s struggles on the Honda continued and he crashed.

Takaaki Nakagami joined his fellow Honda rider on the faller’s list.

As the race crept into the second half, Martin started to slightly cut Bagnaia’s lead to around half a second as Bastianini had his work cut out keeping Marquez behind.

On Lap 19 the #93 fired his shot and performed the block pass perfectly, leaving Bastianini no answer, but to settle for third.

The Spaniard had some work to do to make further ground with Martin more than a second up the road.

With five laps to Martin was able to get the lead to within half a second, but this was only the case for a heartbeat as Bagnaia fired back, going a tenth clear instantly.

But things changed on Lap 21 when Martin cut the deficit down to just three tenths and come closer than ever.

Just when it appeared impossible, a tense finish could have been in store.

However, again Bagnaia had an emphatic response, producing a special penultimate lap to suddenly be almost a second clear in the run to the flag and destroy any thought of a grandstand finish.

Behind them things got aggressive in the fight for third with Bastianini nudging his way past Marquez and knocking the #93 off the podium.

The #23 then turned its attention to #89 and waited until the very last corner to make a move and it worked.

Martin ran wide under threat and Bastianini slipped past to make it a Ducati 1-2 and a perfect day for the factory outfit.

Martin might have the championship lead, all the momentum is with Bagnaia as a small break arrives before the Dutch TT at the end of the month on June 28-30.

2024 Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix results

Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images

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