Francesco Bagnaia can still win MotoGP sprints! In Mugello he stands on the top step of the podium on a Saturday for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix last August. He is flanked by Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta. Jorge Martin crashes while lying in third place and comes away empty-handed.
In the World Championship, Martin’s lead has now shrunk to 27 points over Bagnaia and 32 over Marc Marquez.
MotoGP Mugello: The racing film in the sprint
The starting line-up: 1. Martin, 2. Bagnaia, 3. Vinales, 4. M. Marquez, 5. Bastianini, 6. Morbidelli, 7. Acosta, 8. A. Marquez, 9. A. Espargaro, 10. Rins, 11. Oliveira, 12. R. Fernandez, 13. Binder, 14. Di Giannantonio, 15. Quartararo, 16. Bezzecchi, 17. Mir, 18. Zarco, 19. Miller, 20. A. Fernandez, 21. P. Espargaro, 22. Savadori, 23. Nakagami, 24. Marini
Begin: Bagnaia gets off to the best start and is the first to enter Turn 1. Bastianini and Martin are behind him. Binder shoots up from 13th place on the grid to 4th. He is followed by Marc Marquez, Vinales and Acosta.
1 round: Martin catches Bastianini and is now second. Acosta overtakes Vinales for sixth place. Marc Marquez attacks Binder, briefly passes him, but has to give up the position again.
2nd round: Marc Marquez overtakes Binder on the start-finish straight to take fourth place.
Fabio Quartararo and Miguel Oliveira collided and fell. The scene is being investigated by the stewards, but no penalty is imposed.
3rd round: Bastianini brakes past Martin in Turn 1, goes wide and then pulls back onto the racing line. There is contact and Bastianini falls. The stewards look at this collision as well and again decide that it was a racing accident, for which no driver is penalized.
Acosta concedes in the final corner and is now fourth behind Bagnaia, Martin and Marc Marquez.
4th round: Binder loses another position. Morbidelli has passed him.
5th round: Marquez attacks Martin on the way to turn one, but Martin pushes him to the outside lane and defends second place.
6th round: Marc Marquez attacks Martin again in turn one, this time taking the inside line and passing him. He is now a good second behind leader Bagnaia.
Joan Mir has come to the pits and gives up.
8th round: Martin has crashed! The world championship leader has thrown his Ducati into the gravel of Turn 1 and is out of the sprint.
Meanwhile, Marc Marquez picks up the pace and takes half a second off Bagnaia in one lap. The gap is now only eight tenths.
9th round: Bagnaia counters. In the ninth of eleven laps he is a fraction of twelve thousandths of a second faster.
10th round: Marquez makes a mistake and Bagnaia goes into the final lap with a lead of 1.009 seconds.
11th and final round: Bagnaia doesn’t let anything burn anymore.
Goal: Bagnaia wins 1.469 seconds ahead of Marc Marquez. Acosta completes the podium. Morbidelli is fourth ahead of Vinales and Binder. The last points go to Di Giannantonio, Alex Marquez and Aleix Espargaro.