Francesco Bagnaia leads Bastianini to win Italian MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia dominated the proceedings at his home race from the start to win the Italian MotoGP in Mugello for the third time in a row.

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia led a 1-2 for the factory Ducati machines, which were honoring the Italian national team with a unique blue livery in place of their traditional red colours, as championship leader Jorge Martin lost second place at the final corner.

Bagnaia had been dropped from the front row on Friday after receiving a grid penalty for impeding Alex Marquez. However this had no bearing on his race as he outpaced teammate Enea Bastianini on the corner exit and dived to the inside of leader Martin after starting from third.

From that point on, Bagnaia was untouchable, even though his lead never really stretched and at some point Martin closed in on him. The Pramac rider managed to come within two tenths of a second behind Bagnaia despite the champion running a messy lap 21 of 23, but Bagnaia eventually reaffirmed his dominance.

It seemed like Martin conceded defeat at that point, but it’s possible that he didn’t anticipate looking at another battle before finish. For the better part of the race, the leading quartet consisted of Ducatis as Bastianini and Marc Marquez were positioned behind the leading pair but were unable to mount a challenge.

Marquez, whose 2023-spec Gresini Ducati was emitting smoke as he engaged the ride height device approaching the main straight made a rather bold move to get past Bastianini at the first corner. However, his speed suddenly dropped from that point on, as Bastianini overtook him entering Scarperia on the penultimate lap.

Surprisingly, Bastianini still had enough time to go after Martin as well after the latter made an error at the final turn, and the factory Ducati rider was able to claim second place, as the top three finished within a second.

Marquez took fourth place, a further second behind while Pedro Acosta finished fifth as the best KTM RC16 runner by far on his Tech3-run, Gas Gas-badged machine after he was unable to match the speed of the Ducati quartet despite his best efforts.

Pramac Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli finished sixth, having by far his best weekend since joining the squad although a late charge from Fabio Di Giannantonio of VR46 Ducati almost cost him the position.

Maverick Vinales was the only rider in the race to choose a medium rear tyre over a soft rear, and spent the majority of the race trapped behind Morbidelli on a relatively dull day for Aprilia. He eventually lost speed and was overtaken by Di Giannantonio, ultimately placing him eighth.

Alex Marquez made it seven Ducatis in the top nine – with only Marco Bezzecchi, the eighth Ducati rider, cut adrift in 13th. Brad Binder (KTM) edged Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) to salvage a top-10 from a distinctly unimpressive weekend, albeit still better than the one of team-mate Jack Miller – who finished 16th, fighting off KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro on the final lap.

Alex Rins’s point in 15th place was the only reward for Yamaha’s early-weekend promise. However, it was still much more than Honda even dared dream of, as it had factory rider Joan Mir and LCR rider Takaki Nakagami crash out and had Johann Zarco (LCR) as its top finisher in 19th place, over half a minute down on Bagnaia.

Augusto Fernandez was the other retiree besides the two Hondas. He was forced to leave his Gas Gas-branded KTM parked in the pits owing to an unknown malfunction.

2024 Italian MotoGP Race Results