Mugello master Bagnaia claims third straight Italian MotoGP

MUGELLO (Agencies): Francesco Bagnaia proved his mastery of Mugello with a dominant third consecutive home Italian MotoGP success on Sunday. The double world champion was followed across the line by his factory Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini, with pole sitter Jorge Martin completing the podium. Bagnaia was completing a perfect weekend in front of his tifosi fans after also taking Saturday’s sprint. The star from Turin cut Martin’s lead in the world championship standings to 18 points. “It feels incredible after a weekend like this,” the 27-year-old beamed. “I love all the fans, ‘grazie’ Mugello!” Bagnaia had qualified in second, but started on the second row in fifth after picking up a grid penalty for obstructing Alex Marquez in Friday practice. He did not let that inconvenience stop him from enjoying a sublime start as he stormed past pole sitter Martin. The home favourite quickly established a half-second cushion on his ever-reliable bike from Martin.

Bastianini was placed third in the early laps from Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta, the GasGas team’s exciting 20-year-old rookie. Bagnaia was sitting pretty at the midway point of this seventh round of the season, his gap over Martin inching towards the one second mark. With six laps to go, Marquez nipped past Bastianini to move into third. Martin turned the pressure up on Bagnaia, moving towards four-tenths of a second of the leader with three laps remaining, setting up a tense conclusion to an otherwise processional race. But Bagnaia was alive to the danger, stepping on the gas to cross the line in comfort. A late charge from Bastianini shot him past Marquez (fourth) and then Martin on the last lap. “After a difficult period this feels great,” said Bastianini, whose place in the factory Ducati team for next season could be decided next week, with Martin and Marquez both hoping to get the call up from their satellite Ducati teams. Bastianini added: “Something was wrong before but we’ve resolved the problem now. “I was pushing really hard and on the last lap saw that Jorge was really close to me and I said to myself ‘I can take second place’.” Martin, who crashed out of Saturday’s sprint, will have been relieved not to leave Mugello empty-handed, but was frustrated not to have won. “I thought I could make that move for victory so am frustrated with myself, we’ll come back strongly in Assen.”