The Ducatis literally dominated the Sprint of the Italian Grand Prix, monopolizing the top five positions under the checkered flag at Mugello. Once again, the winner was the world champion Pecco Bagnaia, who reached his third victory in just six rounds, confirming his great aptitude for the short race on Saturday.
Except for a brief interlude, when even a few droplets of rain fell to make the Tuscan track treacherous, where Jorge Martin had taken the lead, the Piedmontese practically commanded from start to finish of the 11 scheduled laps, albeit with the other Desmosedici GPs not too far from his codon, in a race which in any case was very hard-fought in the very first stages.
This result allows him to consolidate his championship leadership, even if his direct pursuers in the end were precisely those who follow him in the World Championship. Marco Bezzecchi, in fact, made a good comeback from the third row of the starting grid and managed to finish in second place: now the gap of the Mooney VR46 driver is 4 lengths.
On the lowest step of the podium, on the other hand, we find the aforementioned Martin, good at resisting the attacks of the Prima Pramac Racing twin Ducati entrusted to Johann Zarco in the final stages. With this result, the Madrilenian is -19 behind Bagnaia and overtakes Brad Binder, who compromised his race today at the first corner, pulling down Alex Marquez and thus being punished with a long lap penalty which relegated him to 11th place .
Luca Marini, on the other hand, completes the very pokerissimo Ducati, who grit his teeth despite his right hand still aching from the consequences of the accident in the last round at Le Mans. The first of the “others” instead is Jack Miller, even if the KTM standard-bearer probably ruined his race and that of Marc Marquez, who followed him in seventh position, with a fairly borderline entry at Scarperia-Palagio which cost several positions to both in the early stages.
Aleix Espargaro also deserves applause, very sore in his foot injured in a bike accident on Thursday, but nonetheless capable of being the best of the Aprilia riders at the finish line in eighth place, just ahead of the returning Enea Bastianini, who on his return from The scapula injury therefore conquers his first first point of the season.
Fabio Quartararo also recovered several positions from the 16th he occupied on the grid, but tenth place does not move the Yamaha rider’s championship standings. Behind him and Binder we find the two Aprilias of Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Vinales, followed by the Italian trio made up of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Michele Pirro and Franco Morbidelli. In addition to the crash of Alex Marquez, it should also be noted that of Alex Rins, who was also taken to the medical center for tests.
