After taking pole position and a sprint race win, Pecco Bagnaia has rounded out his home race weekend with a win on Sunday. He took a dominant win, leading every lap of the race after overcoming a short early challenge from Jack Miller. He eventually came over the line 1.067 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
The Italian rider, celebrating his third race win of the season, made his way to the Bagnaia Fan Club grandstand to enjoy an alfresco hot dog – a very old-school celebration for the reigning champion!
Bagnaia has been able to extend his lead at the top of the championship standings, after a difficult weekend for Marco Bezzecchi, who wasn’t able to make his way any higher than 8th today.
Joining him on the podium were both Prima Pramac riders, Jorge Martin in 2nd and Johann Zarco in 3rd. The veteran Frenchman had to fight hard for a podium today, coming through from 9th on the grid and then battling hard with Luca Marini for much of the latter stages of the race.
After sharing Parc Ferme together, for the first time ever, after qualifying on Saturday, the Marquez brothers faced a far more difficult day today with both Marc and Alex ending up in the gravel. The first crash was from Marc whilst running in 4th. He went down at turn 15 on lap 6 after running a little too wide when chasing down Marini who was running in 3rd. Then, on lap 15, Alex went down at turn 2 whilst running in 3rd and facing a huge amount of pressure from Marini just behind him.
It was also a tricky day for Miller who, despite flying off the start line and leading the race into the first corner, was eventually shuffled back and had to settle for 7th. Fabio Quartararo has really been nowhere this weekend, failing to make it out of Q1, settling for 10th in the sprint race and then, today, finishing the race in 11th.
As It Happened
As the riders went out for their warm-up lap, one of the grandstands could be seen holding red and white cards that spelt “Ducati”. There was certainly a lot of expectation in the air and the crowd were hoping to see their first home-grown winner of the day.
As the lights went out and the race got started, Jack Miller was the rider to get the best start and before the grid had even passed the pit lane exit, he was leading the field. The glory was short-lived as Pecco Bagnaia was back ahead by the following corner.
🚦 LIGHTS OUT! 🚦
HUGE holeshot for @jackmilleraus! 🚀#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/K61ewCDthh
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 11, 2023
Jorge Martin was also quick to make moves in the field, flying from his starting place of 6th up to 3rd.
As the first lap ended, with had Bagnaia in the lead, followed by Miller in 2nd, Martin in 3rd, Luca Marini in 4th, Marc Marquez in 5th and Alex Marquez in 6th.
Although things were quickly changing up and down the pack – the most significant move came when Martin took 2nd place away from Miller. Marini tried to follow the Prima Pramac rider through, and Miller and Marini then battling hard for 3rd. This battle let Martin break away ahead of them and he quickly built a 1 second lead over the fighting pair.
By this point in the race, the end of the second lap, Bagnaia already had a 0.4s lead over the rest of the field – he was exactly where he wanted to be, out in clear air and controlling the field with ease.
On the third lap, Marc Marquez seemingly came out of nowhere to make a stunning move that saw him overtake three other bikes. In the same move, his brother Alex Marquez lost control of his bike and in an attempt to stay upright, nearly took Miller out of the race. Miller was quick to show his frustrations and the pair were soon locked in to a tough battle, swapping and changing positions at almost every corner.
At lap 5, Johann Zarco was behind Brad Binder with the pair fighting hard for 7th place. He eventually bested the South African and, on the start-finish straight at the start of lap 6, the pair flew past Miller and shuffled him back down to 8th.
💥 HE’S GONE! @marcmarquez93 crashes OUT of the podium battle! 🤯#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/b7cjytT8ij
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 11, 2023
It was shortly after this move, at turn 15 of lap 6, that Marc Marquez ended up in the gravel thanks to going a little wide when trying to take 3rd away from Marini. He was clearly pushing hard on a seemingly mediocre bike and his frustrations were clear for everyone to see.
This gave Marini some breathing room as Marc Marquez was very hot on his tail. However, he was then being followed by the younger Alex Marquez who is an equally ferocious competitor.
It was at this point that everything seemed to settle down across the grid with the only moves coming from Fabio Quartararo, who moved up to 12th on lap 9, and Alex Marquez tussling with Marini for 3rd as well as Zarco starting to close in on Marini for 4th.
At lap 15, the second Marquez brother ended up in the kitty litter with Alex Marquez going down at at turn 2 – it seemed that the pressure he was put under by Marini just became too much for him.
Podium battle: ON! ✅ @JohannZarco1 barges through! 👊#ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/zzH0Sh94mU
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 11, 2023
Everyone’s attention then turned to Zarco who was trying hard to claim the final podium spot away from Marini. He made the slip stream work perfectly, getting close behind the VR46 machine, but couldn’t seem to make a move work. That was until lap 18 when a tough battle between the pair ended with Zarco finally on top.
All this battling allowed Martin and Bagnaia to pull away from the field, with Martin 1.9 seconds ahead and Bagnaia a further 1.3 seconds ahead of him.
Full Results
| 1st | Pecco Bagnaia | Lenovo Ducati |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Jorge Martin | Prima Pramac |
| 3rd | Johann Zarco | Prima Pramac |
| 4th | Luca Marini | Mooney VR46 |
| 5th | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM |
| 6th | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia |
| 7th | Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM |
| 8th | Marco Bezzecchi | Mooney VR46 |
| 9th | Enea Bastianini | Lenovo Ducati |
| 10th | Franco Morbidelli | Monster Energy Yamaha |
| 11th | Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha |
| 12th | Maverick Vinales | Aprilia |
| 13th | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda |
| 14th | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Gresini |
| 15th | Augusto Fernandez | GASGAS Tech 3 |
| 16th | Michele Pirro | Aruba.it |
| 17th | Raul Fernandez | CryptoDATA RNF |
| 18th | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia |
| 19th | Jonas Folger | GASGAS Tech 3 |
DNFs: Miguel Oliveira (CrypotDATA RNF), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Alex Marquez (Gresini)
Championship Standings
| 1st | Pecco Bagnaia | 131 points |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Marco Bezzecchi | 110 points |
| 3rd | Jorge Martin | 107 points |
| 4th | Brad Binder | 92 points |
| 5th | Johann Zarco | 88 points |
Feature Image Credit: MotoGP