Ducati racer Francesco Bagnaia won the 2022 Italian MotoGP at the Mugello Circuit, Sunday (29/5), by defeating Fabio Quartararo.
The VR46 racing duo, Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, got off to a perfect start. Marini had an early lead before Bezzecchi took over on the second lap.
Quartararo put on a great performance. Although the M1 motorcycle lost speed to the Ducatis, the Yamaha rider was able to poke into the second position after overtaking Marini on the fourth lap.
Bagnaia, who had difficulty at the beginning of the race, was also able to slowly improve his position. Starting from position six, the Ducati racer was able to be in second position on the sixth lap.
Suzuki experienced bad luck on lap eight. Joan Mir and Alex Rins both crashed on the same lap and continued Suzuki’s nightmare in the 2022 Italian MotoGP.
The race leadership changed on lap nine. Relying on the speed of the Desmosedici GP22, Bagnaia was able to overtake Bezzecchi in the straight line. Slowly but surely the racer who is familiarly called Pecco was able to lead by 0.4 seconds over Bezzecchi on lap 11.
On the same lap Bezzecchi lost second place after being overtaken by Quartararo. One lap later or lap 12, it was Marini’s turn to overtake Bezzecchi.
Enea Bastianini, who was seen as one of the candidates for the podium at the Italian MotoGP 2022 by being in sixth position, made a blunder and fell at corner four on lap 14.
Entering the 15th lap, Bagnaia already had an advantage of more than 1 second over Quartararo. Aleix Espargaro also performed superbly after moving up to third place by overtaking Marini and Bezzecchi in three laps to lap 18.
Quartararo got close to Bagnaia and was only 0.7 seconds away on lap 19. But Bagnaia was able to respond with a 1.3-second lead on lap 21.
More interesting competition occurs in the fight for the third podium between Aleix Espargaro vs Marco Bezzecchi.
Bagnaia was finally able to win the 2022 Italian MotoGP by beating Quartararo. While the third podium belongs to Aleix Espargaro.
Quoted from Sky Sports Italia, here are some interesting facts after Bagnaia won the 2022 Italian MotoGP:
- With the results in the 2022 Italian MotoGP, Francesco Bagnaia gave Ducati its 63rd win in the Grand Prix (MotoGP/500cc) primary class. Interestingly, 63 is the racing number used by Bagnaia.
- This is Bagnaia’s sixth win in MotoGP and his second this season. In total, Italian riders have collected 12 podium finishes in MotoGP.
- Bagnaia became the third Italian rider to win the Italian MotoGP with Ducati after Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci.
- Bagnaia returned to Ducati’s success in the Italian MotoGP after a series of victories was stopped by Yamaha through Fabio Quartararo last season. Since 2017, Ducati has only failed to win once at the Mugello Circuit.
- This is Bagnaia’s first win at the Mugello Circuit in all classes. Previously Bagnaia’s best finish at the Mugello Circuit was the third podium in Moto3 2016.
