MISANO ADRIATICO, Italy, Sept 21 (Askume) – Reigning Ducati MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia recovered from a poor start to win the weekend. Winner of his sixth Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the No. 1 racer took advantage of championship rival Pramac’s Jorge Martin’s mistakes to beat the other two.
Bagnaia now leads championship leader Martin by four points after a thrilling sprint win, with the Italian hoping to mark his 100th MotoGP race with Ducati’s 100th win on Sunday.
“I did everything I could to stay at 100% and luckily I was able to stay at 100%. I missed the restart and it was difficult to overtake George,” said Bagnaia.
“I took advantage of his mistake and took the lead and from that moment it was very easy. The pace today was incredible… I’m very happy. Thanks to my team, they did a great job again.”
Bagnaia took pole position on the first day of qualifying with a record lap , but dropped to third after Martin’s dream start, with KTM’s Brad Binder close behind, but the defending champion then moved up to second.
Marc Marquez crashed in qualifying and started on the third row, but the Spaniard, who won the San Marino Grand Prix at the same track two weeks ago, quickly moved up to fourth behind Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.
Martin held on to the lead despite persistent pressure from Bagnaia, but with six laps remaining the Spaniard missed a shot, giving Bagnaia the lead.
“When I got the track restriction warning, I couldn’t concentrate and a small mistake cost me the race,” Martin said.
“Maybe I’ll be stronger tomorrow.”
The Pramac Racing driver also had to look over his shoulder when trying to overtake Martin Bagnaia as Bastianini ensured he was stuck between the two red factory Ducatis, with the Italian leaving Max well behind.
But Bagnaia kept his cool and overtook Martin by less than three-tenths of a second, while Bastianini finished third and the Ducatis rounded out the podium with Marquez second and fourth.
Rookie Pedro Acosta finished fifth on his Tech3 bike, beating sixth-placed Binder.
Fabio Quartararo finished seventh for Yamaha, who had just one rider left after Alex Rins withdrew from the weekend with the flu. Rins also did not take part in qualifying and is taking a break to compete in the Indonesian Grand Prix next weekend.
