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Italian MotoGP: Bagnaia scores home win for Ducati; Quartararo second

Francesco Bagnaia beat title rival Fabio Quartararo to claim a home MotoGP win for Ducati at the Italian Grand Prix, as Marc Marquez made his last start for the foreseeable future. 

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Having started fifth on the grid, Bagnaia dropped to ninth on the opening lap, but rebounded to take the lead on the ninth tour and pull away by over a second to score his second win of the 2022 campaign.  

Shock poleman Fabio Di Giannantonio took the holeshot on his year-old Gresini Ducati from VR46 duo Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi.  

Di Giannantonio was quickly pushed out of the lead, first by Marini at Turn 4 on the opening lap and then Bezzecchi at Turn 11.  

Bezzecchi then powered past his GP22-mounted teammate Marini on the main straight to take the lead at the start of lap two on his 2021-spec Ducati.  

For the next eight laps Bezzecchi would run at the front of the pack, while Bagnaia and reigning world champion Quartararo cleverly worked their way towards the podium places.

Unable to make any moves on the main straight on his underpowered Yamaha M1, Quartararo carved past the likes of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, Di Giannantonio and Marini at Turn 4, Turn 11 and Turn 6 from laps two to four.  

Up to second and defending from a retaliation by Marini into Turn 1 at the start of lap five, Quartararo wouldn’t be able to put his Yamaha into the lead as Bagnaia powered past into Turn 1 on lap six.  

The factory Ducati rider proceeded to cut down Bezzecchi’s advantage at the head of the pack and made his decisive move into Turn 1 on lap nine.  

Bagnaia quickly put a second between himself and the group behind, which would be led by Quartararo after he defended third again from Marini on lap nine before passing Bezzecchi at Turn 10 on the 11th tour.  

Quartararo put daylight between himself and the warring VR46 Ducatis as Aleix Espargaro started to put himself into podium contention in the second half of the 23-lap race.  

Though Quartararo would pull a few tenths back on Bagnaia through the twisty sections of the circuit, the power deficit of the Yamaha stopped him from making any real gains on the Italian.  

The gap would come down to 0.635 seconds at the chequered flag, but Bagnaia held firm to take victory on home soil as Quartararo extended his championship lead to eight points. 

Aleix Espargaro moved into third ahead of Bezzecchi at Turn 10 on lap 17 and pulled away by six tenths to claim a fourth-straight third-place finish to strengthen his position in second in the championship.  

Johann Zarco snatched fourth in the end on his Pramac Ducati from VR46 duo Bezzecchi and Marini on the weekend their mentor and team owner Valentino Rossi had his famous #46 retired from MotoGP. 

KTM’s Brad Binder leaped up from 16th on the grid to run seventh by lap two and held that position to the chequered flag ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira on the second factory team KTM.  

Completing the top 10 was Marc Marquez on the factory Honda, who announced on Saturday that he would be taking a break from racing after Mugello to have a fourth operation on the right arm he badly broke in 2020.  

The six-time world champion is likely to miss the rest of the 2022 campaign, but took a fighting 10th as teammate Pol Espargaro crashed out.  

Di Giannantonio faded to 11th in the end ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, who salvaged 12th having qualified 24th. Pramac’s Jorge Martin, LCR’s Alex Marquez and Jack Miller on the second of the factory team Ducatis took the final points.  

Le Mans race winner Enea Bastianini’s championship hopes took another knock as he crashed out while running sixth on lap 14.  

He joined both Suzuki riders Joan Mir and Alex Rins on the sidelines, as both tumbled out of the race on lap eight.  

Italian MotoGP - Race results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati -
2 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 0.635 0.635
3 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1.983 1.983
4 France Johann Zarco
Ducati 2.590 2.590
5 Italy Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati 3.067 3.067
6 Italy Luca Marini
Ducati 3.875 3.875
7 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 4.067 4.067
8 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 10.944 10.944
9 Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 11.256 11.256
10 Spain Marc Marquez
Honda 11.800 11.800
11 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio
Ducati 12.916 12.916
12 Spain Maverick Viñales
Aprilia 12.917 12.917
13 Spain Jorge Martin
Ducati 17.240 17.240
14 Spain Alex Marquez
Honda 17.568 17.568
15 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 17.687 17.687
16 South Africa Darryn Binder
Yamaha 20.265 20.265
17 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 20.296 20.296
18 Italy Michele Pirro
Ducati 21.305 21.305
19 Australia Remy Gardner
KTM 30.548 30.548
20 Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Yamaha 31.011 31.011
21 Spain Raúl Fernández
KTM 42.723 42.723
22 Italy Lorenzo Savadori
Aprilia 39.688 1 Lap
Italy Enea Bastianini
Ducati
Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki
Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki
Spain Pol Espargaro
Honda

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