Pole position and double first place! Bagnaia wins what he can and celebrates a perfect weekend with Ducati in Mugello, Italy

It couldn’t have gone any better! Francesco Bagnaia rounded off the Italian Grand Prix, the sixth round of this year’s MotoGP series, with a dominant victory in front of his home crowd. After his triumph in Saturday’s sprint, he therefore scored the maximum number of points possible and increased his lead in the World Championship standings to 22 points. Bagnaiu was joined on the podium by Pramac stablemates Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco.

Even the four-week spring break didn’t put a damper on the Italian Ducati stable’s beauty parade as they looked to prove their undying dominance at their home track in Mugello. Saturday’s sprint was completely dominated by its riders, with reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia taking the win and four other Ducati riders taking the remaining places in the Top 5.

Bagnaia rode to his third sprint triumph and in Sunday’s grand prix he attempted to claim his third main race win of the season. Marc Márquez on the factory Honda got a second chance after his seventh place on Saturday, showing his quality in the morning qualifying despite the Japanese factory’s visibly poor form.

A miserable day for the Márquez brothers

The start to the sixth race of the season belonged, as always, to the KTM machines and their fantastic punctures. Jack Miller in particular managed to fly past several riders after the lights went out.

However, Miller fell in behind home rider Bagnaiu a few metres after the first corner and gradually began to fall behind the other Ducati riders and Marc Márquez. The Spaniard never got a second chance to threaten the leader Bagnaiu and rather than fight for the win, he was battling around the top five.

On the third lap of the race there was an awkward situation in the group of Miller, Márquez and the two Ducati riders Luca Marini and Alex Márquez. The younger Márquez, on a satellite Ducati, misjudged the braking point into the opening corner of San Donato and was lucky to squeeze narrowly between three riders.

However, in his attempt to get back on the ideal racing line, he hadn’t counted on the riders around him taking advantage of his trip to the outside of the corner. Alex side-swiped Miller’s bike, which sent the Aussie reeling and threw him off his rhythm.

Marini and the older and more successful Márquez worked their way up to third and fourth respectively. The latter, however, hasn’t really built on his success so far this year, as he also threw his machine into a duck in Mugello, Italy. It was the third accident in three appearances for the eight-time world champion in 2023.

The group battling for third place behind Bagnaia and Jorge Martín thus lost one member. While nothing special was happening at the front, all the attention was focused on this part of the starting field.

Alex Márquez was doing everything he could to get past Marini. However, this effort by the Spaniard ended midway through the race just as it did for his brother in the duck.

The Ducati’s uninterrupted promenade

Despite this loss, Ducati still had four handcuffs on the top four positions. Bagnaia maintained a gap of around a second on Martino, while Johann Zarco began to close in on Marini. Miller, meanwhile, dropped into the space shared with teammate Brad Binder and Aleix Espargaro.

Marini was unable to keep pace with the leading duo and his deficit was nearly three seconds to Martín. Zarco waited for nothing and took third place from the Italian. Pramac thus had both riders on the provisional podium for the second time in a row.

The provisional podium became a confirmed podium a few laps later. Bagnaia won comfortably ahead of Martín and Zarco. Fifth-placed Binder, the first rider from a non-Ducati stable, lost almost nine seconds to the race winner.

Bagnaia, with his third first place on Sunday and sixth overall, if you include Saturday’s sprints, pulled points away from his pursuers. Going into the German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, the 26-year-old Italian will take a 22-point lead over Marco Bezzecchi, who finished the race in eighth place.

Italian MotoGP Grand Prix results (6/20, 23 laps = 120.635 km; top 10 only):

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 41::16.863
2. Jorge Martín (Span., Ducati) +1.067
3. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) +1.977
4. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) +4.625
5. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +8.925
6. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) +10.908
7. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) +10.999
8. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +12.654
9. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) +17.102
10. Franco Morbidelli (Ita., Yamaha) +17.610

2023 MotoGP rider standings (after 6/20; top 10 only)::

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 131 points
2. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 110
3. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 107
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 92
5. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 88
6. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 72
7. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 62
8. Fabio Quartararo (Fra., Yamaha) 54
9. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 54
10. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 53

Source : MotoGP