MotoGP

Bagnaia returns to victory at Mugello

After his fall at Le Mans, the Italian won ahead of Fabio Quartararo who gave everything to try to hold off his rival Ducati until the last lap.

Published on 29/05/2022 à 14:43

Tom Morsellino

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Bagnaia returns to victory at Mugello

Once again, it didn't take much to fabio quartararo to get a second victory in a row on the Mugello circuit. But this year, the world champion had to face a Francesco Bagnaia who was determined to make a clean sweep of the previous edition when he fell while leading the hostilities. 

However, it was Marco Bezzecchi who stood out at the start of the race. The rookie, who started from second place on the grid, made a cautious start, but he still managed to take control from his teammate Luca Marini at the start of the race. He then made the effort to try to widen the gap on his pursuers, but he was quickly joined by Francesco Bagnaia, author of a rather discreet start. 

The vice-world champion gradually moved up the hierarchy to take the lead on the ninth lap. Behind, Fabio Quartararo, the only rider at the helm of an in-line four-cylinder machine, held his own against the Ducati of Bezzechi, Marini and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro. Fabio Di Giannantonio, author of pole position, was also in the mix in the first laps before falling down the rankings. 

It is only at the 11e turn that Quartararo manages to gain the upper hand over Bezzecchi to gain second place. Suffering cruelly in a straight line, the Frenchman must give everything in the winding sections to try to get rid of the rookie. 

The world champion finally managed to take cover slightly to try to catch up with Bagnaia a few laps later, who then had a lead of more than a second. Once again, the Niçois manages to slightly close his gap outside the straight, but at the exit of the last turn, “Pecco” takes back what he dropped from the Yamaha rider. Frustrating for Quartararo, the gap even went down to seven tenths, but like in Jerez a few weeks ago, Bagnaia held on to go straight to his second victory of the year. 

Quartararo finished in second position ahead of Espargaro. The latter joins Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso in the very exclusive club of drivers on the current grid having managed to achieve four podiums in a row. Neither Quartararo, nor Mir or even Rins have achieved this in the past.

Johann Zarco finished just off the podium after dropping to sixth position in the first lap. The Frenchman overtook Bezzecchi on the last lap, who inherited fifth position ahead of Marini. Brad Binder places the first KTM in the hierarchy in seventh place ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, best Honda representative, Miguel Oliveira and Marc Marquez who closes the doors of the Top 10 for his last race before his operation. 

In the championship, Quartararo is now 8 points ahead of Espargaro and 28 over Enea Bastianini, who made a mistake during the race. Bagnaia moved back into fourth position, 41 lengths behind the Frenchman.  

Ranking

Tom Morsellino

Journalist and MotoGP reporter.

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