Bagnaia beats Bezzecchi in Italy MotoGP Sprint

Francesco Bagnaia has marginally extended his MotoGP championship lead with victory over Marco Bezzecchi in the Sprint at Italy’s Mugello.

The top two in the title race also finished top two after 11 laps through the Tuscan hills, with Prima Pramac Racing team-mates Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco, followed by Bezzecchi’s Mooney VR46 team-mate Luca Marini, making for an all-Ducati top five.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jack Miller was best of the rest, one position ahead of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, after they had early-race contact.

Bagnaia had qualified his Ducati Team entry on pole position and led the field up the hill to San Donato (Turn 1) for the first time, ahead of Marc Marquez and Martin.

Alex Marquez had also started on the front row but the #73 Gresini Ducati was down at the first corner due to contact with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), who would be issued a Long Lap Penalty over the incident.

A flag-to-flag encounter was declared as a brief, isolated shower began to fall on Lap 2, causing the leading group to bunch right up.

Martin took the lead from Bagnaia at Scarperia (Turn 10) and Miller tried to dive under the #1 Ducati at Correntaio (Turn 12) but could not make the pass stick.

Miller ceded third back to Marc Marquez when he was wide at San Donato on the next lap but barged his way back past the #93 Honda when they arrived at Scarperia again.

However, that contact took both wide, allowing both of the VR46 Desmosedicis past.

Bagnaia reclaimed first position from Martin as they exited San Donato on Lap 4 while, just behind, Bezzecchi passed VR46 team-mate Marini for third.

When Martin was wide at the top of the main straight on Lap 5, he was relegated to third by Bezzecchi, while Zarco soon moved up to fourth, from Miller and Marini.

Bezzecchi was already riding under a track limits warning but continued to tail Bagnaia as they tried to break free from the rest of the field.

Marini overtook Miller, who thus found himself with Marc Marquez right behind, while Binder was back outside the top 10 having served his penalty.

Bagnaia started to edge away with three laps to go, stretching his lead to four tenths of a second, and Zarco in fourth had gapped Marini in fifth to the tune of a full second.

Bezzecchi tried to respond but finished 0.369s behind in the end.

Eighth went to Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing), with Enea Bastianini (Ducati Team) scoring the last point, Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) ending up 10th, and Binder crossing the finish line in 11th.

Earlier, Marini was reclassified in fourth in Qualifying 2, meaning it is he, rather than Miller, who will inherit a place on the front row when Alex Marquez’s grid penalty takes effect on Sunday afternoon.

Following the morning Warm Up, the Grand Prix race takes place at 22:00 AEST.

Race results: Sprint race

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	19:41.183
2	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+0.369
3	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+0.952
4	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+1.009
5	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+3.668
6	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+3.772
7	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+3.905
8	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+6.062
9	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+6.431
10	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+6.458
11	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+6.672
12	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	+7.930
13	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+9.022
14	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+11.508
15	51	Michele PIRRO	ITA	Aruba.it Racing	Ducati	+14.344
16	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+16.666
17	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+16.725
18	32	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+17.247
19	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	+21.596
20	37	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+35.212
21	94	Jonas FOLGER	GER	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+46.189
DNF	42	Alex RINS	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	+8 laps
DNF	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati

Race winner: 11 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	106
2	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	102
3	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	87
4	Brad BINDER	RSA	81
5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	72
6	Luca MARINI	ITA	59
7	Jack MILLER	AUS	53
8	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	49
9	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	49
10	Alex RINS	ESP	47
11	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	44
12	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	41
13	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	40
14	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	30
15	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	25
16	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	21
17	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	21
18	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	15
19	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	13
20	Jonas FOLGER	GER	7
21	Michele PIRRO	ITA	5
22	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	5
23	Joan MIR	ESP	5
24	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	4
25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	3
26	Stefan BRADL	GER	2
27	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	1
28	Iker LECUONA	ESP	0