Bagnaia strikes at home GP

If Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) can successfully defend his world championship this season, he may well look back on the Italian Grand Prix as the turning point. Not only did he put together a strong weekend, qualifying in P2 and taking victories in both the 12-lap Sprint and the 23-lap Grand Prix, but he did it on a weekend that championship leader Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac) wasn’t at his peak.

Forced off the front row with a three-place grid penalty, Bagnaia got a terrific start and passed Martin, Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing), Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Pedro Acosta (GasGas Tech3) to take the lead heading into the second corner. Buoyed by his adoring home crowd, Bagnaia posted the fastest lap of the race on the fourth and then the sixth lap to put three quarters of a second between himself and Martin.

Promoted to the front row thanks to Bagnaia’s blunder of impeding Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) on a fast practice lap, Marc Marquez was looking for his seventh consecutive podium of the season and Ducati’s 93rd victory. There was added pressure, too, after Casey Stoner, Pecco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzechi and Jorge Martin had all registered Ducati’s 27th, 63rd, 73rd and 89th victory, corresponding with each rider’s race number. But between Bagnaia’s dominance and the small but clear deficit of his one-year-old Gresini Ducati, it wasn’t to be for the number 93 who found himself in fourth place on the opening lap, behind three GP24s of Bagnaia, Martin, Enea Bastianini (Lenovo Ducati) and ahead of a determined Acosta in fifth.

Vinales, Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) slotted in behind the rookie while Aussie Jack Miller, who lost his seat for 2025 the day prior when it was announced Acosta would partner Brad Binder in the factory-backed Red Bull KTM squad next season, recovered six places from 19th on the grid to 13th on the opening lap.

Whether riders were conserving tyres or ensuring their front tyre pressures remained manageable by keeping some space between themselves and the rider in front, it’s difficult to know, but the top six remained unchanged as the laps wore on. Acosta, who looked keen to get past Marquez early on in the race lost touch with the leading four by mid-race distance, and with Morbidelli and Vinales almost five seconds behind Bagnaia, Acosta rode a relatively lonely race to add a fifth-place finish to his third-placed Sprint score the day before.

Martin was ruing his crash out of second place in the Sprint – his first-ever Sprint DNF – promoting Marquez to a silver-medal position as Bagnaia went on to celebrate the victory, the championship leader rode a calm and consistent race, but was unable to make any inroads on Bagnaia’s persistent 0.6sec lead.

Marquez made a block pass on Bastianini into Turn 1 with six laps to go and while it looked like the Spaniard might be able to break away from the factory Ducati man, the Italian – who’s notoriously quick towards the end of races – remained on the rear wheel of the Gresini Ducati as he plotted his return attack.

With three to go, the gap between Bagnaia and Martin began to fall. Down to less than a quarter of a second, the Prima Pramac rider got a sniff of the win, but Bagnaia responded. Bastianini’s move came on the penultimate lap, as he relegated Marquez to fourth, but it would get even better for ‘The Beast’ in front of his home crowd. Martin, who gave up the chase for victory on the final lap opting instead to settle for a safe second place, was caught napping, as Bastianini used all of his late-race speed to pass Martin for second in the final corner and to give Ducati a dream 1-2 finish at its home grand prix.

Marquez crossed the line over a second behind Martin in fourth, Acosta a further 5.5 seconds back in fifth, while Morbidelli scored his second top-six finish of the weekend ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati), Vinales, Alex Marquez and Binder. Any early promise from Miller faded during the race, the Aussie crossed the line in 16th place for no points.

Bagnaia’s performance means the 44-point advantage enjoyed by Martin heading into the Spanish Grand Prix just over one week ago has been whittled down to just 18 points after the Italian Grand Prix, with 171 points to Bagnaia’s 153. Marquez (136) stays in third ahead of Bastianini (114) and Acosta (101).

The recent postponement of the Kazakhstan Grand Prix now gives the series a three-week break with the Dutch TT’s Round 8 next up over 28-30 June.