Italian MotoGP Race Results | Pecco Bagnaia romps to landmark home Ducati win

Pecco Bagnaia has inched himself back into title contention with an emotional second win of the season on home soil in the Italian MotoGP at Mugello.

The local favourite overcame a poor start to pick his way to the front before controlling the pace to realise the dream of becoming the latest Italian rider to score a victory for Ducati in front of its devoted tifosi.

On a weekend that has seen Ducati largely dominate - albeit with a rotation of its riders in the leading positions - Bagnaia’s experience and the strength of the factory GP22 ultimately out-lasted his opponents.

A crucial second win of the season in the wake of his late crash out of the podium positions last time out in France, his performance goes some way to whittling down what remains a sizeable 41-point margin to the top of the standings, even if the impact was lessened by a steadfast Fabio Quartararo bringing it home in second place.

With a curious race in prospect after evolving track conditions in qualifying threw up a mixed grid, rookies Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi, along with Luca Marini, made up an unusual-looking, all-Italian front row.

Far from being intimidated by the immensity of their stage though, the trio got away well from the lights, with di Giannantonio leading out of the first corner after Bezzecchi couldn’t stop his hole-shot from overshooting.

However, though Marini quickly nosed ahead of di Giannantonio to move into the lead of a MotoGP race for the first time in his career, a recovering Bezzecchi - having also passed his countryman - used the slipstream from his VR46 Racing team-mate to cut the beam at the end of the first lap in front.

Behind them, however, a threat from the heavyweights of Quartararo and Bagnaia was quickly forming despite slow getaways that left them sixth and eighth by the end of the first lap.

Quartararo was first on the move, picking off three riders on lap two alone, before penetrating the VR46 1-2 by slipping past Marini on lap four. 

However, with Marini refusing to yield without a fight, his hassling of the Yamaha allowed a progressing Bagnaia into their battle, culminating in him using the strength of a double slipstream to surge past both into second position at the start of lap six.

Setting his sights on Bezzecchi in front, while the rookie was putting in a faultless performance to hold firm, he’d eventually cede the lead to Bagnaia into Turn 1 on lap nine, before Quartararo muscled his way through on lap 11.

By this time, however, Bagnaia had eased his lead out to a small, but comfortable margin over Quartararo, who despite his dogged efforts to regularly complete 90% of the twisting sections 0.2secs quicker than his Ducati rival, could do nothing but watch the margin slip away on the 0.7-mile home straight by virtue of his Yamaha’s top speed deficit.

With the same process repeating itself on each lap as Bagnaia refused to buckle under pressure, Quartararo would eventually ease off to protect second position, releasing his rival to complete a popular home win, the sixth of his MotoGP career.

Despite the limitations of his M1 package on the straight, Quartararo proved once again why he is a World Champion with a brilliant second place that extends his lead over Aleix Espargaro, who followed home in third.

A gritty performance by the Aprilia rider, who also had to fight-back after being bullied down the order at the start, third place marks his fifth podium of the year and keeps the gap to Quartararo pinned to just eight points.

Johann Zarco came on strong in the latter stages to grab fourth place, the Frenchman’s result emphasising a missed opportunity for title contender Enea Bastianini, who was running ahead of his Ducati stablemate when he crashed out on lap 14.

While hopes of a landmark podium for Valentino Rossi and his team on its debut in Mugello faded as the race wore on, fifth and sixth for long-time leader Bezzecchi and Marini represents a huge result all the same for the privateer outfit.

On what looked like being a difficult weekend for the KTM crew, Brad Binder made the most of a strong start to bring home a respectable seventh, with team-mate Miguel Oliveira in ninth, the pair sandwiched by top Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami.

In what is likely to be his final race of 2022 ahead of major surgery on his arm, Marc Marquez collected a solid tenth place result, just denying pole man di Giannantonio, the youngster gamely battling up at the front for several laps before fading towards the flag.

Maverick Vinales was classified 12th in a photo-finish - a mere 0.001secs behind di Giannantonio - while Jorge Martin’s lacklustre 13th place result was softened only by factory rider Jack Miller in an out-of-sorts 15th, the pair split by Alex Marquez.

Outside the points, Darryn Binder overcame a long lap penalty to snatch 16th on the line from factory Yamaha counterpart Franco Morbidelli.

Elsewhere, Suzuki endured a shocker of a day after both Joan Mir and Alex Rins crashed on the very same lap in different incidents, while Pol Espargaro was an early retirement too after tumbling at Turn 9.

2022 Italian MotoGP | Mugello | Race Results