MotoGP: Mugello – Bagnaia Leads Bastianini to a Ducati 1-2 at Home
The Italian duo brings glory go Ducati at home as they close their championship gap to Martin.
The beautiful Tuscan hills have called back, although this time the race was a little less exciting than expected. It was, however, a very strong round for the top four, who managed to pull away as far as five seconds.
The race began with Jorge Martin on pole, while Bagnaia started 5th – having served a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Alex Marquez in practice. Bagnaia flew right off the start, however, and had already found his way to the race lead by the first sector.
Bagnaia controlled the pace from then on, maintaining a small gap between Martin, as the majority of the race was quite processional, aside from several overtakes in the midfield, in a brief battle between Pedro Acosta and Franco Morbidelli within the top six, and Marc Marquez overtaking Enea Bastianini for 3rd.
It wasn’t until the last three laps where things began to heat up. Martin had seemingly closed the gap to Bagnaia down to 0.3s, but it was to no avail as the latter managed to speed away again the following lap. And with Bastianini using his well-known late race pace to his advantage, he made an aggressive lunge on Marquez on Turn 9, and made the move stick to reclaim 3rd
That wasn’t even the end of it for the #23, as he went on to push throughout the final lap, and just managed to catch Martin to make a final-corner overtake, trailing Bagnaia to a Factory Ducati 1-2, as Martin had to settle for 3rd.
As Marc Marquez took 4th, Pedro Acosta rode a quite lonely 5th, despite an early challenge from Franco Morbidelli who rounds the top six.
Fabio Di Giannantonio emerged as one of the fastest riders towards the end of the race, as he charged to 7th after passing Maverick Viñales and Alex Marquez, who finished 8th and 9th respectively, while Brad Binder covers the top ten.
The results spice up the championship race, as both Bagnaia and Bastianini close their respective gaps to Martin in the points standings. Can the Ducati duo repeat their performances in the iconic Dutch TT? We’ll find out in a few weeks!
Featured Image – Getty Images
Writer - Liam van de Seijp
