2022 Italian MotoGP, Mugello Circuit – Race Results

* Rookie

A delighted factory Ducati star Francesco Bagnaia kept Yamaha’s reigning champion and title leader Fabio Quartararo at bay to claim home victory in the 2022 Italian MotoGP at Mugello.

Not far behind them, Aleix Espargaro made it two Italian manufacturers on the podium with his fourth rostrum in a row (and fifth of the season) for Aprilia.

Pole starter Fabio di Giannantonio held his advantage into Turn 1, with fellow rookie Marco Bezzecchi passed by team-mate Luca Marini for second place.

Marini and Bezzecchi made it a VR46 one-two by the end of the lap, with Monster Yamaha’s Quartararo, Aprilia’s Espargaro and factory Ducati’s Bagnaia on the attack behind di Giannantonio.

The late-braking Bezzecchi continued to clock up his first-ever laps in the lead of a MotoGP race until Bagnaia put his red machine ahead into Turn 1 at the start of lap 9 of 23.

Quartararo took third from Marini soon after with Espargaro now at the rear of a five-rider lead group.

Bagnaia, who ed out of the lead at Mugello last season, had built a 0.7s lead by the time Quartararo snatched second place from Bezzecchi with 12 laps to go.

The Frenchman’s lack of top speed repeatedly left him vulnerable to retaliation on the main straight, but his braking ability was just enough to keep Bezzecchi and Marini at bay.

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Finally breaking clear of the VR46 machines, Quartararo now had 10 laps to bridge a 1.3s gap to Bagnaia. The Frenchman initially chipped away a few tenths, but in a repeat of their Jerez duel Bagnaia again held firm ahead to claim his second victory of the season.

The battle for the final podium place became a VR46 vs Espargaro contest, the Aprilia rider eventually breaking through the yellow-and-black wall with seven laps to go.

Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco snatched fourth from Bezzecchi on the very final lap, with Marini and KTM’s Brad Binder completing a close group. Takaaki Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira followed.

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Marc Marquez rode from eleventh on the grid to tenth during his final race before stepping back from the 2022 MotoGP season to undergo a fourth arm operation. The eight-time world champion is predicted to be sidelined for at least several months and will thus turn attention to 2023.

Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro ed out on lap 6 with a big accident at Turn 9.

di Giannantonio and Maverick Vinales were tied on time for eleventh. di Giannantonio’s team-mate and triple 2022 race winner Enea Bastianini was outside the top ten in the early laps, climbed steadily up the order to sixth, then made a costly mistake at Turn 4 to send his ‘peace’ liveried Gresini machine bouncing through the gravel. Bastianini’s third fall of the weekend.

Jorge Martin, demoted from 11th to 14th on the grid for obstructing another rider in FP3, set a new all-time MotoGP top speed record of 363.6km/h on his way to 13th for Pramac Ducati.

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Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller was a distant 15th, having never featured in the top ten today.

Darryn Binder was forced to serve a long lap penalty for a yellow flag infringement earlier in the weekend, but recovered to beat Franco Morbidelli’s factory Yamaha in the closing stages.

A miserable weekend for Suzuki ended with Joan Mir (Turn 1) and then Alex Rins (Turn 12) falling in quick succession on lap 9.

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Sunday’s race was watched by just 43,000 fans, compared with 84,000 at the pre-Covid 2019 round. The weekend total was 74,000 compared with 139,000 fans in 2019.

MotoGP now heads straight to Barcelona for next weekend’s Catalan round, which is followed by a post-race test.

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