Marquez wins majestic Mugello battle
Marc Marquez has claimed win #93 in style after mastering a thrilling fight for victory in the early stages of the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Home hero Francesco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez put up a fight across a stunning first quarter of the race.
But once again, Marc Marquez emerged on top and ultimately cruised to a comfortable win, his first at Mugello in 11 years.
Alex made it another family one-two, while Fabio Di Giannantonio put in an inspired ride to enjoy the dream of standing on his home podium, but it came at the cost of Bagnaia.
A record Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix crowd of 166,074 stacked the stands at Mugello, and they were thoroughly entertained.
It was sparked in qualifying, as just 0.083s covered the top three in qualifying, where Marc Marquez again prevailed.
Although he was the hot favourite, Marc Marquez made converting pole to victory in the Sprint a lot harder than it should have been.
A shocking start saw the #93 slump to towards the back of the top 10, but by the end of the opening lap the star had already rocketed back to third.
A big part of this was his brother Alex Marquez causing a commotion following contact with Maverick Vinales.
Marc was in no mood for patience as he soared to the lead within four laps and took another Sprint success by 1.4s over his brother with Bagnaia a quiet third.
However, the “Beast” was back when it mattered on Sunday.
The Ducatis were side by side when the lights went out, and Marquez won out, having somehow kept the #93 tightly hugging the apex.
But he was not in the lead for long as Bagnaia attacked at Luco and made it stick to the joy of the Mugello masses.
This set the scene for a thrilling opening sequence of laps as the proud Marquez and desperate Bagnaia gave it everything.
Bagnaia controlled the first lap, but could not stop the #93 from reclaiming track position with the slipstream when they started the second tour.
The Italian turned the tables when they returned, as the pair even made knee-to-knee contact when they arrived at Materassi.
But Bagnaia hit Marc’s rear wheel coming out of the following Borgo San Lorenzo, which gifted second to Alex.
The home hero refused to be denied as he shot from third to first across two breathtaking corners at the start of the fourth lap.
Marquez was now on the back foot and tried to go around the outside to no avail.
A mistake coming out of the final corner at the end of Lap 5 brought Alex Marquez into play, and he hit the lead after some aggressive manoeuvres at San Donato and Borgo San Lorenzo.
Amazingly Lap 7 was the first without a lead change as the #73 pulled half a second clear of the battling factory Ducatis led by Marc as fans finally caught their breath.
It took just two laps for the fight for victory to resume, and this time it was the brothers battling with Marc using the slipstream to great effect.
This proved to be the decisive move as the #93 shot a second up the road within a couple of laps.
Behind them, Franco Morbidelli and Maverick Vinales were going at it for fourth and their battle could not be kept clean.
Morbidelli made a big lunge at Materassi and nudged Vinales off his KTM, leaving the Spaniard furious.
He joined Enea Bastianini as an early faller and it did not take long for the VR46 rider to receive a long lap penalty.
With the Marquez brothers on their own, the race settled down with all eyes back on Bagnaia, but for the wrong reasons.
Di Giannantonio reeled him in and bumped the home hero off the podium on the penultimate tour of Casanova with an opportunistic move.
Whilst it was not the Italian the crowd came to see on the podium, the VR46 rider put in a fine performance.
Jack Miller had a tough time and retired early due to mechanical dramas.
The second leg of the classic back-to-back will be the Dutch TT at Assen this weekend.
Image: Getty
Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix results
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time/Diff |
| 1 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Ducati Lenovo (GP25) | 41m 9.214s |
| 2 | Alex Marquez | SPA | BK8 Gresini Ducati (GP24) | +1.942s |
| 3 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | ITA | Pertamina VR46 Ducati (GP25) | +2.136s |
| 4 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP25) | +5.081s |
| 5 | Marco Bezzecchi | ITA | Aprilia Racing (RS-GP25) | +9.329s |
| 6 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Pertamina VR46 Ducati (GP24) | +16.866s |
| 7 | Raul Fernandez | SPA | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP25) | +18.526s |
| 8 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +19.349s |
| 9 | Brad Binder | RSA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +19.377s |
| 10 | Ai Ogura | JPN | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP25)* | +21.943s |
| 11 | Joan Mir | SPA | Honda HRC Castrol (RC213V) | +22.877s |
| 12 | Fermin Aldeguer | SPA | BK8 Gresini Ducati (GP24)* | +25.578s |
| 13 | Miguel Oliveira | POR | Pramac Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +26.123s |
| 14 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +26.130s |
| 15 | Alex Rins | SPA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +28.155s |
| 16 | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | Honda HRC Castrol (RC213V) | +33.110s |
| 17 | Lorenzo Savadori | ITA | Aprilia Factory (RS-GP25) | +40.900s |
| 18 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | Idemitsu Honda LCR (RC213V)* | +70.075s |
| Jack Miller | AUS | Pramac Yamaha (YZR-M1) | DNF | |
| Maverick Viñales | SPA | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | DNF | |
| Johann Zarco | FRA | Castrol Honda LCR (RC213V) | DNF | |
| Enea Bastianini | ITA | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | DNF |
Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE
Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine
