Written by Owen Bradley
MotoGP returns to the iconic hills of Tuscany for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. With Championship leader Jorge Martin starting ahead of his championship rivals Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, the trio were set up for a titanic battle.
Grand Prix
A clean start for the field, Bagnaia made an excellent start from fifth on the grid, riding on the left side of the circuit down into Turn 1, attempting to go around the outside of the leaders. Managing to get back underneath Marc Marquez with a switchback, Bagnaia got a phenomenal run up the inside of the leading Jorge Martin into Turn 2, seizing the lead of the race.
Enea Bastianini would hold Marquez behind him in fourth, as the Italian began closing on Martin for second. Pedro Acosta's KTM would struggle with chatter on the bike, still a long way ahead of the Factory KTM riders on the track though. Running inside the top five, Acosta held his position as the top rider that is not on a Ducati.
As the crowd roared on, Bagnaia managed to pull out a sizable lead over the field. After 10 laps, each rider inside the top five was separated by around half a second, wanting to preserve tyre grip for the end of the race. None of the riders wanted to run too close to the rear of anybody else, as this heats up the tyre and increases the chance of crashing.
Joan Mir and Takaaki Nakagami would crash in unrelated incidents. Both Honda riders continue their struggle, with the other Honda riders of Johann Zarco and Luca Marini running right at the back of the field.
Marquez would eventually ride to within a couple of tenths on Bastianini, but with tyre grip to consider, it made overtaking more difficult than usual. With just six laps remaining, Marquez would finally dive to the inside of Bastianini at Turn 1, the pair running slightly wide and losing time to the leaders. Bastianini would follow the Gresini Ducati for most of the lap, looking to retake that final podium place.
At the front, Jorge Martin would raise the pace, closing to within half a second on some laps. However, Bagnaia maintained strong pace to lead the field aboard his special liveried blue Ducati.
However, with just a few laps remaining, Martin would close by nearly four tenths of a second, the leaders separated by about four further tenths as Marquez and Bastianini battled just a second behind. Bastianini would dive up the inside of Marquez with two laps remaining at Turn 10, the Italian managed to hold enough grip to run close behind the Gresini Ducati through the double right handers and then carried the run into 10.
With the final lap remaining, Bagnaia opened his lead suddenly to nearly one second over Martin, as Bastianini closed massively on Martin for second. Bastianini had supreme grip over all the leaders, cautiously attempting a move up the inside into the final corner on the final lap.
Martin attempted to defend, running wide in the middle of the corner as Bastianini managed to get the bike turned underneath Martin and overtake him for second place.
Bagnaia led across the line to win his home race, a dominant victory from the Italian who closes to within 20 points of the championship leader Jorge Martin.
Elsewhere, a decent way off the lead, Pedro Acosta managed to finish in fifth, in a bit of a no man's land position as the top rider not on a Ducati. Franco Morbidelli brought his Pramac Ducati home for a strong sixth place finish, with Fabio Di Giannantonio bringing the VR46 Ducati home for seventh at his and the team's home race.
Maverick Vinales finished in eighth place as the top Aprilia in their home race as well, with teammate Aleix Espargaro a further 10 seconds away from his teammate in eleventh. Alex Marquez would finish with a disappointing and lonely ninth, one of the only Ducati riders to really struggle at the fast Mugello circuit.
Brad Binder brought home a tenth place finish for the Factory KTM team, a tough weekend for KTM who struggled across the board with chatter problems and the long straights, unable to keep up with the Ducati's. Raul Fernandez would finish outside the top ten with a twelfth place finish, a mediocre weekend compared to the Catalan Grand Prix where Fernandez managed to challenge for the top five places.
Marco Bezzecchi continues his difficult 2024 championship campaign with a thirteenth place finish, a long way behind the Ducati leaders. Bezzecchi has reported issues of front end grip and not being able to turn the bike as sharply as he would like it to be, understeering through most corners.
Miguel Oliveira would finish in fourteenth for Trackhouse Aprilia, similarly to teammate Fernandez with the Aprilia's performance. Alex Rins would finish as the top Yamaha, scoring a single point for himself and the team in fifteenth, as Yamaha continue their difficult season.
MotoGP Italian GP - Results
1st Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati
2nd Enea Bastianini, Ducati +0.799
3rd Jorge Martin, Pramac Ducati +0.924
4th Marc Marquez, Gresini Ducati +2.064
5th Pedro Acosta, GasGas KTM +7.501
6th Franco Morbidelli, Pramac Ducati +9.890
7th Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Ducati +10.076
8th Maverick Vinales, Aprilia +11.683
9th Alex Marquez, Gresini Ducati +13.535
10th Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM +15.901
11th Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia +19.182
12th Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Aprilia +20.307
13th Marco Bezzecchi, VR46 Ducati +20.346
14th Miguel Oliveira, Trackhouse Aprilia +23.292
15th Alex Rins, Yamaha +23.613
16th Jack Miller, Red Bull KTM +28.417
17th Pol Espargaro, KTM +28.778
18th Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha +30.622
19th Johann Zarco, LCR Honda +31.457
20th Luca Marini, Repsol Honda +31.310
21st Lorenzo Savadori, Aprilia +46.724
DNF Takaaki Nakagami, LCR Honda
DNF Joan Mir, Repsol Honda
DNF Augusto Fernandez, GasGas KTM
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