Pecco Bagnaia made history in Misano, on the Marco Simoncelli circuit. With a superb, borderline, narrow win by just 34 thousandths over Enea Bastianini, he became the first Ducati rider to achieve four wins in a row. But beyond the anniversary, the Italian is already breathing down the neck of Fabio Quartararo, who was 5th: he has placed second and has come within 30 points. He has cut 61 from him in four races. There is a World Cup.
The start kept Miller on top of pole, but he only lasted one lap because he crashed at the start of the second lap. Bastianini, who started second, took the lead, followed by a Pecco Bagnaia ready to strike. The Ducati Italian went from 5th to 3rd, second behind Enea, and first already on the third lap.
Behind him, the rival for the title, Fabio Quartararo, progressed from 8th to 6th place on the third lap, although he had Aleix Espargaró ahead, who at the start managed to climb from ninth to sixth.
The race was animated by the intensity that Maverick Viñales put into it, who was second to Bastianini on the fourth lap, ready to seek his first victory with Aprilia. The one from Roses was the only one that followed the strong rhythm of Bagnaia. Both opened a gap of 4 tenths over Bastianini, Marini, Aleix and Quartararo on the sixth lap.
From the group of two in the lead, they went to one of four, connecting Bastianini and Marini with Bagnaia and Viñales. The quartet was 9 tenths (v. 8/27) away from Quartararo, who had overtaken Aleix Espargaró and was trailing 7 tenths.
Viñales was studying the gaps in Bagnaia to test the overtaking that would take him to the lead. The Aprilia was agile in the corners and Maverick seemed comfortable keeping close to the Ducati, although he had a penalty notice for having exceeded the limits of the track three times.
No one rushed out of the front quartet, and that benefited Quartararo, who was gradually getting closer, 6-8 tenths, and increasingly distanced himself from Aleix, 2 seconds away (v. 15/27).
With 11 laps to go (17/27), Viñales began to put the wheel on Bagnaia, insinuating that he was going to overtake him. But when it seemed that the victory was a matter of two, Bastianini overtook Viñales (v. 20) and Pecco took advantage of it to open the gas and take 6 tenths of a distance, enough dissuasive to move away from the threat of his compatriot from Gresini Racing, with very good second parts of the race.
The last seven laps were a continuous and persistent chase from Bastianini to Bagnaia to dispute the victory; a duel between the next two teammates of the official 2023 Ducati team. Would you respect Pecco's hierarchy, who is in contention for the title? The difference between finishing first or second, for Bagnaia, was cutting 14 or 9 points from Quartararo, who was fifth, 1.2 behind fourth, Marini.
With three laps to go they were already totally away from Viñales and company, 3 seconds behind. The two Italians traced their movements and their times, looking for the error and the moment of weakness. Bagnaia closed the gaps very well, but the Beast did not let go of the prey. On the last lap, the Gresini rider had to pick up the bike because he was eating Bagnaia, and he fell behind a few meters in the last corners. But Bastianini did not give up and pushed Pecco as hard as he could to the finish line looking for a slipstream. The one on the red Ducati won by just 34 thousandths of a second.
It is his fourth consecutive victory -an achievement that no Ducati rider had achieved- and the sixth of the season, with which he has been able to climb to second place in the World Championship, beating Aleix Espargaró, and cut 61 points from Quartararo in the last four races, from 91 to 30. The MotoGP World Championship will come alive at the Aragón GP, on September 18.
