Francesco Bagnaia dominates Italian MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia cruised to his third win of the season in the Italian MotoGP after edging Pramac’s Jorge Martin.

Ducati star and reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia continued his Italian show on Sunday by winning the Italian Grand Prix. The home favorite never faced any significant challenge as he surged to victory to build on his triumph in the sprint event on Saturday. With his victory, Bagnaia increased his comfortable lead in the championship standings.

Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco finished second and third respectively making it a successful day for Pramac Racing.

Bagnaia started on pole position after he had just won the sprint race on Saturday. The 26-year-old was overtaken by Jack Miller into Turn 1 on the opening lap, but recovered the lead a few corners later and held it until the chequered flag.

The factory Ducati rider held off a charging Jack Miller through the first few turns at Mugello to preserve the lead, but soon found himself under pressure from a surging Jorge Martin who quickly outpaced Miller’s KTM.

As he constantly kept Bagnaia within a half-second over the first half of the race, Martin appeared to have the advantage in speed thanks to his use of the soft rear tyre on his Ducati.

As the race entered its final third, the defending MotoGP world champion began to pull away from the Spaniard, and it appeared that his choice of the harder medium compound rear tyre was paying off. Bagnaia eventually eased clear to cross the finish line just over a second clear of Martin to claim his third GP victory of the year.

Meanwhile, the fight for the final podium position was more intensely fought over as Luca Marini tried to earn his second podium finish of the year. The VR46 racer briefly trailed Gresini’s Alex Marquez, who had started third but had fallen back early, before regaining the position when Marquez went down at Turn 3.

The sister Pramac entry with Johann Zarco then put Marini under threat, with Zarco initially relinquishing the position at the last curve with only a few laps left before regaining it at Turn 1 shortly after. However, Zarco would have the last laugh when squeaking through at Turn 3 shortly after.

Zarco was unable to fend off Marini’s attacks all through the closing laps, but he was ultimately able to exert enough effort to hang onto third and clinch the second consecutive double rostrum finish for the Pramac team.

Brad Binder finished fifth for KTM after failing to match Ducati’s blazing pace. The South African crossed the finish line a few seconds ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who edged off Miller for sixth in the final laps.

Bezzecchi found it challenging to move up and ultimately settled for eighth place, while an Enea Bastianini who is still not entirely healthy took ninth after holding off Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo, who placed tenth and eleventh, respectively.

Maverick Vinales had a poor performance in Italy, finishing just 12th on the other factory Aprilia, and Takaaki Nakagami was the only Honda to make it to the finish line after Marc Marquez crashed out in the opening lap.

In the first half-dozen laps, the six-time premier class champion attempted to overtake Marini for a spot on the podium. However, in his rush to find a gap, he ran wide at the final bend and into the dirty outer edges of the corner, losing the front of his Honda and ending his day in the gravel trap.

RNF Aprilia rider Miguel Oliveira crashed out at Turn 9 when running in the points-paying slots shortly before mid-distance, making him the other rider to not finish with the Marquez brothers.

Alex Rins was unable to start after breaking his right leg in an incident during Saturday’s sprint run. The LCR rider joined fellow Honda star Joan Mir on the sidelines after the 2020 premier class world champion injured a finger in an accident during practice on Friday.

With this decisive victory, Bagnaia now has a 21-point lead over Bezzecchi going into the German GP at the Sachsenring next weekend. Martin, who finished second for the second consecutive race, is still in a strong third place overall.

2023 ITALIAN MOTOGP, MUGELLO – RACE RESULTS