Bagnaia wins, Miller 15th in Italian MotoGP race

Francesco Bagnaia has won the Italian MotoGP while Ducati Lenovo team-mate Jack Miller picked up just a single championship point.

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo was a gallant second on a Monster Energy Yamaha hardly suited to Mugello’s long main straight and Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro finished third, while Gresini Ducati rider Enea Bastianini crashed out.

For the works Ducati riders, it was a somewhat similar story early on with Bagnaia shuffled back to ninth on the opening lap while Miller dropped from 12th on the grid to 22nd after being forced onto the grass on the run to the first corner.

Mooney VR46 Ducati riders Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi quickly moved past pole-sitter Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and into the top two, before Bezzecchi slipstreamed past his team-mate at the start of Lap 2.

Bagnaia quickly set about making up ground and was second when he got by Quartararo and Marini in one fell swoop as they sped towards San Donato on Lap 5.

He pulled off much the same move on Bezzecchi four laps later, and Quartararo was second when he passed #72 on Lap 11 at Scarperia.

‘Pecco’ stretched his lead to a full second on Lap 12 and it was still that much on Lap 17, before Quartararo scrounged back a few tenths.

Bagnaia responded and was 1.1s up at the start of the final lap, before taking the chequered flag 0.6s to the good.

Behind Quartararo, who had to be supreme under brakes at San Donato to fend off repeated Ducati attacks, Aleix Espargaro took a fourth consecutive third placing after he made steady progress from as low as sixth in the order.

As such, he keeps touch with ‘El Diablo’ in the riders’ championship, now eight points back, while Bagnaia is up fourth at 41 points in arrears of the leader.

Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) took fourth with a final-lap pass of Bezzecchi, while Marini ended up sixth, from Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda), Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM), and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda).

Miller got back up to 15th on Lap 8, lost a spot to Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) on Lap 13, then got one back when Bastianini crashed out of sixth spot on Lap 14.

Bastianini is still third in the championship, although now more than a full race behind Quartararo, while Miller has slipped to eighth.

Tech3 KTM’s Remy Gardner remains 23rd in the standings after finishing 19th at Mugello, two positions up on team-mate Raul Fernandez.

Round 9 is the Catalan MotoGP at Barcelona-Catalunya on June 3-5.

Race results: Italian MotoGP

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	41:18.923
2	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+0.635
3	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+1.983
4	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+2.590
5	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+3.067
6	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+3.875
7	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+4.067
8	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+10.944
9	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+11.256
10	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+11.800
11	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+12.916
12	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+12.917
13	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+17.240
14	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	+17.568
15	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+17.687
16	40	Darryn BINDER	RSA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+20.265
17	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+20.296
18	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	+21.305
19	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+30.548
20	04	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	+31.011
21	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+42.723
22	32	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+1 lap
DNF	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+10 laps
DNF	42	Alex RINS	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+16 laps
DNF	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	+16 laps
DNF	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+19 laps

Race winner: 23 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	122
2	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	114
3	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	94
4	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	81
5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	75
6	Alex RINS	ESP	69
7	Brad BINDER	RSA	65
8	Jack MILLER	AUS	63
9	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	60
10	Joan MIR	ESP	56
11	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	50
12	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	40
13	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	38
14	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	37
15	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	31
16	Luca MARINI	ITA	31
17	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	30
18	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	20
19	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	19
20	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	8
21	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	8
22	Darryn BINDER	RSA	6
23	Remy GARDNER	AUS	3
24	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	0
25	Michele PIRRO	ITA	0
26	Stefan BRADL	GER	0
27	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	0