Pecco Bagnaia was resilient today in fending off his teammate for next year Enea Bastianini, onboard his factory Ducati to win his fourth consecutive race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in San Marino, Italy.
Prior to the race weekend at Misano, it was announced that Bastianini would make the move to the factory Ducati team from Gresini for the 2023 season, replacing the Australian Jack Miller who moves to the factory KTM team.
The race started with Miller on Pole, Bastianini in second and Bagnaia fifth after a 3 place grid penalty.
Miller had the better start than the others as he went into the lead into turn 1. A first corner incident saw Michele Pirro, Pol Espargaro and Johann Zarco taken out in a coming together.
Miller’s stay at the front of the race ended soon as he fell at turn 4 on the second lap. Marco Bezzechi too fell at turn 10.
Soon the pack started to form at the front consisting of Bagnaia, Maverick Vinales, Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini.
Vinales was pounding the Aprilia hard as he was staying close behind the Ducati man up front.
Meanwhile, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was making progress as he climbed up to fifth place and was looking good to join the leading pack, but soon found himself unable to match the pace of the guys up front.
Despite Vinales aggressively trying to pip the Ducati of Bagnaia, he found himself overtaken by Enea Bastianini on the specially liveried Gresini in memory of their late founder, Fausto Gresini.
Bastianini was carrying serious pace as he looking to take the lead from Bagnaia. The two future teammates went toe-to-toe for the remaining laps as they left the others behind.
But Bagnaia held on bravely. Bastianini had a last gasp look at the final corner on the last lap as he looked to have a better exit. The Gresini man almost snatched the win as he was only half a bike length behind the Ducati at the finish.
A nerve wrecking finish saw Bagnaia clinch victory over Bastianini by just 0.034 seconds.
It was also a special moment for Italian Andrea Dovizioso as he guided his RNF Yamaha to twelfth place on his final MotoGP as he bids farewell to an illustrious career.
In the process Bagnaia moves up to second in the driver’s championship after taking second place from Aprilia man Aleix Espargaro who finished sixth and sits 33 points behind the leader Quartararo. Quartararo held on to his championship lead by 30 points as he could only finish fifth.
The next race sees the riders head to Motorland Aragon in two weeks time.
Image credit: Autosport
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