Marco Bezzecchi scored his first grand prix win since March and stretched his MotoGP championship lead after winning the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello on Sunday.
On a spectacular weekend for Aprilia, Bezzecchi headed his factory team-mate Jorge Martin home, allowing the latter to entrench himself in second place in the championship standings.
Francesco Bagnaia’s third place helped Ducati salvage some pride at a circuit on which it had dominated in recent years.
Bezzecchi made a far better job of the first corner than he had in the Saturday sprint, staying patient in the face of early resistance from Martin, who grabbed a brief lead. But Bezzecchi was back in front of his team-mate by the time they exited Borgo San Lorenzo on lap one.
Sprint winner Raul Fernandez was already out of contention by this stage, having wildly outbraked himself at the first corner following a good start from the front row. The Trackhouse man was well outside the top 10 by the time he picked up the pieces.
On lap two, Bagnaia took second from Martin. Then, a lap later, the factory Ducati went past the factory Aprilia of Bezzecchi, raising memories of many of a previous Mugello triumph for the two-time world champion.
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images
Bezzecchi, however, was simply playing a patient game, taking good care of his tyres as he sought to get back on the grand prix winning trail for the first time since Austin in March. Martin proved to be no major threat, remaining a safe distance behind in third as Bezzechi hung on to Bagnaia’s rear tyre.
On lap 14 of 23, Bezzecchi took advantage of a superb final sector on the previous lap and a subsequent 6km/h edge through the speed trap to simply drive past Bagnaia. He pulled away immediately, and when Martin swept through on Bagnaia two laps later, it became clear that the factory Ducati was beginning a serious battle for late-race pace.
That put him at the mercy of Ai Ogura, who was on one of his trademark charges. The Japanese Trackhouse Aprilia rider reeled him in quickly over the last two laps, nosing up his inside at the final corner of the race. But Ogura ran wide, and Bagnaia defied the odds to hang on up the hill to the finish line and claim a home podium.
Next up behind Ogura was Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had to recover from yet another dreadful start that dropped the VR46 Ducati rider outside of the top 10 on the first lap.
Both Ogura and Di Giannantonio’s charges were helped by Marc Marquez’s ability to bottle up some of the riders they needed to pass, most notably Pedro Acosta. The KTM tried all kinds of tricks to get past the cunning but injured champion, only to be repeatedly thwarted as Marquez stubbornly held on.
It was lap 16 before Acosta finally passed Marquez for good – but by then the pair had nothing for Ogura and Di Giannantonio. As Acosta and Marquez made do with sixth and seventh respectively, Fernandez had to settle for a disappointing eighth place.
MotoGP Italian GP results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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