MotoGP Italy Results, Grand Prix - Quartet of supremacy

MotoGP heads to Mugello this weekend for the Italian Grand Prix. Francesco Bagnaia leads the World Championship, and Marco Bezzecchi arrives at his home race off the back of his second win of the season last time out in Le Mans. Check this page throughout the weekend for MotoGP Italy results.

Overview

Grand Prix - Bagnaia leads four-strong Ducati dominance

Sprint - Bagnaia wins out in all-Ducati podium scrap

Qualifying - Bagnaia takes pole, Quartararo only 15th

P2 - Ducati rebounds with Bagnaia fastest, Bastianini 6th while Yamaha falls back

P1 - Strong start for Alex Marquez, Quartararo; Ducati struggles early on

Grand Prix

The 2023 Italian Grand Prix saw a dominant performance from Francesco Bagnaia and Ducati, who locked out the top four positions.

It was Bagnaia who took the early lead, ahead of Jorge Martin. Together, they were able to pull away from the battle behind, which was fought with the kind of ferocity that has become the standard in MotoGP in recent years, and which continues to intensify.

Luca Marini was also able to break away from that battle. But, by the time he had done so, Bagnaia and Martin had all but escaped.

The final 20 laps came down to Bagnaia versus Martin for the win, and it was Bagnaia who came out on top. Martin was able to stay close enough to keep Bagnaia alert, but unable to mount a serious challenge, until the Italian began to escape slightly further in the closing laps. 

Martin's attention then had to turn slightly rearward, to his teammate, Johann Zarco, who had made his way up to third place and was showing strong speed. Unfortunately for the #5, it came too late to achieve a better finish than third, but that itself backs up the fourth place of the Sprint to confirm the Italian round as his best weekend of 2023.

In the end, Bagnaia's winning margin was just over one second, which has become more or less the standard for the Italian, who completed his second 'double' of the 2023 season.

Jorge Martin hung on for second place, ahead of Johann Zarco, who completed the podium. Both Alex Marquez and Luca Marini had held third place earlier in the race, but Marquez crashed and Marini faded in the closing stages.

Brad Binder completed the top five, ahead of Aleix Espargaro (6th, top Aprilia), Jack Miller (7th), Marco Bezzecchi (8th), Enea Bastianini (9th), and Franco Morbidelli (10th, top Yamaha, top Japanese bike).

Alex Rins did not start the race after breaking his tibia and fibula in the Sprint on Saturday. He had his first surgery on Saturday night to have an external fixator fitted.

Full MotoGP results from the Italian Grand Prix are below.

2023 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix | Autodromo del Mugello | Grand Prix Results

Sprint

The MotoGP Sprint in Mugello devolved from a large group battle in the beginning, to a four-rider fight at the end. From that, Francesco Bagnaia emerged victorious, for his third Sprint win of the 2023 season.

A strong launch from Francesco Bagnaia saw him make the holeshot ahead of Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin. Jack Miller made a strong start from fourth, but was shuffled to fifth as a result of being placed on the outside into turn one.

With four laps to go, Bagnaia began to push the pace on. Going with him were Marco Bezzecchi, and the Pramac Ducati riders, Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco.

Bagnaia led onto the final lap from Bezzecchi. The gap between the front two was as between Bezzecchi and Martin - far enough that there was no real threat of an overtake, but close enough that a mistake would lead to a position change.

In the end, there were no mistakes, and Bagnaia took his third Sprint win of the season, ahead of Bezzecchi and Martin, while Johann Zarco narrowly missed the podium in fourth.

Luca Marini took fifth place, ahead of Jack Miller (6th), Marc Marquez (7th), Aleix Espargaro (8th), Enea Bastianini (9th), and Fabio Quartararo (10th).

Full MotoGP results from the Sprint in Mugello are below.

Qualifying

MotoGP qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix saw Francesco Bagnaia take pole position while Yamaha's struggles from Friday afternoon continued into Saturday morning.

Q1 opened proceedings but was minus Joan Mir, who retired from the weekend after Friday. 

Q2 would be minus Fabio Quartararo, who has finished first and second in his previous two starts at Mugello, but qualified only 15th this year, and behind his Yamaha teammate, Franco Morbidelli.

However, Quartararo's absence from the top two in Q1 was to the benefit of Alex Marquez and Jack Miller who both proceeded to Q2.

For Alex Marquez, who topped P1 on Friday, this was important, as he proved in Q2 that he has competitive speed in Mugello. He qualified third, behind Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. 

Before either (Marc) Marquez or Bagnaia set their respective fastest laps of Q2, they had engaged in some on-track mental games. On the one hand, the emotional response triggered in Bagnaia by Marquez proved the Honda rider's victory in these games, however it was Bagnaia who took pole position.

Just off the front row was Jack Miller, who ended qualifying half-a-second faster than his KTM teammate, Brad Binder, despite the #33 having the edge over Miller all weekend to that point. Miller qualified fourth, and will start alongside Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi on the second row.

Aleix Espargaro crashed his bicycle while looking at his phone on Thursday, but qualified seventh-fastest, ahead of Johann Zarco and Alex Rins, who has shown flashes of impressive speed on the LCR Honda this weekend.

The aforementioned Brad Binder will start 10th, from the front of row four, on which the South African will be joined by Luca Marini, who is struggling with his right wrist injury from Le Mans in braking for right-hand corners, and Enea Bastianini, who completed his first qualifying session since Portimao in March this weekend in Mugello.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying in Mugello are below.

2023 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix | Autodromo del Mugello | Qualifying Results

P2

MotoGP P2 in Mugello saw a continuation of the good conditions experienced in the morning. This worked well for Fracesco Bagnaia, who struggled in the morning but finished Friday on top.

The factory Ducati team's weekend in Mugello seemed to be going in a negative direction from Thursday, when Enea Bastianini reported he was still not at 100%, and Francesco Bagnaia was making his way through the paddock with the aid of a crutch. However, by the end of Friday, both riders were in the top 10 and into Q2.

Marco Bezzecchi finished P2 in second place overall, ahead of Alex Rins who impressed in third place on the combined standings.

Brad Binder was the top KTM in fourth, ahad of Jorge Martin, the aforementioned Bastianini, Johann Zarco, Marc Marquez, Aleix Espargaro, and Luca Marini.

Full MotoGP results from P2 in Mugello are below.

2023 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix | Autodromo del Mugello | Combined FP Results

P1

MotoGP P1 in Mugello opened the first triple-header of the season. After the race on Sunday, the paddock moves to the Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix, and, from there, onto Assen for the Dutch TT. For the moment, after the first practice in Mugello, Alex Marquez is fastest.

Although Alex Marquez does not have a race win to his name in Mugello, for him to top P1 on a 2022 Ducati Desmosedici GP comes as little surprise. Marquez is riding the motorcycle which won in Mugello last year, and so has a strong base to work from. For the #73, continuing this form throughout the rest of the weekend will be the major challenge.

The same can be said of Fabio Quartararo, who finished second in P1 with essentially the same settings as he used in 2021, when he won the Italian Grand Prix. Although Quartararo's early speed is promising, his 6kph deficit in the speed traps compared to Marquez shows his greatest challenge, looking ahead to the race.

KTM's improvements in 2023 have been arguably the story of the season. However, the Austrian brand's relatviely brutal, stop-start, way of making speed around a lap could be perceived as not suiting the flowing nature of Mugello. Jack Miller's 14th place in P1 would seem to support that, but Brad Binder was a more encouraging third.

Marco Bezzecchi, the most recent winner in MotoGP even if Le Mans does seem a significant time ago, was fourth fastest on Friday morning. He was followed up by Johann Zarco, who made it three Ducatis in the top five.

Jorge Martin was only 0.026 seconds behind his Pramac Racing teammate, Zarco, in sixth, and was ahead of Franco Morbidelli (7th), Maverick Vinales (8th, top Aprilia), Marc Marquez (9th, top Honda), and Raul Fernandez, who completed the top 10.

It was not a good morning for the factory Ducati team. Both of their riders, Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini, are in Mugello with suboptimal health. For Bastianini, Mugello is his second attempt, after the Spanish Grand Prix, at returning from the injuries he sustained in the Portuguese Sprint; while Bagnaia has a fractured tallus bone from his crash with Maverick Vinales in France. Both Bagnaia and Bastianini ended P1 outside the top 10, and so have work to do in the afternoon.

Full MotoGP results from P1 in Italy are below.

2023 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix | Autodromo del Mugello | P1 Results

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