MUGELLO, Italy — The Ducati Lenovo’s Francesco Bagnaia has scored his first victory in his home MotoGP race, the Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley.
Despite falling deep into the top 10 in the opening corners at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, he hit the front before the halfway mark and banked an important 25 points to get his title bid back on track.
World Championship leader Fabio Quartararo was a commendable second on a Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP entry, which had to make up speed in the corners, while Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro finished third for the fourth race in a row.
Johann Zarco passed Marco Bezzecchi on the final lap to claim fourth. Luca Marini made it VR46 bikes fifth and sixth, while Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) proved once again that he is the ‘Sunday man’ by climbing from 16th on the grid to seventh.
Rounding out the top 10 were Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu), Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), and — in his last race before yet more surgery on his right arm — Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team).