Kimi Antonelli and Marco Bezzecchi meet at Valentino Rossi's ranch

Kimi Antonelli has promised to take advantage of the current break in the F1 to work on his departures, but it's at the ranch of Valentino Rossi that the young Italian had initially come to spend his forced vacation. Invited to the legendary VR46 Motor Ranch, the 2,4-kilometer dirt-track built by the legend of MotoGP to revitalize Italian motorcycling, the young protégé of Toto wolff was able to observe the work of his compatriots in Tavullia.

However, there was no question of the Bolognese rider getting on a bike; the spectacle was best enjoyed from the sidelines, where "the Doctor" trains his successors. Among the guests that day was Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), the current MotoGP championship leader, a product of this Italian school. The Noale rider had indeed joined MotoGP in 2022 with VR46, under the wing of his mentor Valentino Rossi.

 

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A historic double

This high-level meeting comes at a time when Italian motorsport is enjoying a golden age. Just hours after Antonelli's resounding victory at Suzuka in F1, Marco Bezzecchi triumphed in Austin in MotoGP. Seeing two Italian riders take the top prize in both premier classes on the same day is an extremely rare event.

It was last held 23 years ago, on April 6, 2003. At the time, Giancarlo Fisichella won at Interlagos in the Brazilian chaos, while Valentino Rossi won at Suzuka, during a weekend overshadowed by the fatal accident of Daijiro Kato.

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