Bagnaia’s debut in MotoGP was three years in the making. The Italian managed to secure a win in the last race in the Aragon round against Marc Marquez and managed to fend off Fabio Quartararo in Misano.
The win, while stellar, still sees Quartararo in first place in the MotoGP’s standings. It would have been 53 if not for Bagnaia’s 0.364-second win against him. Currently, Quartararo has 234 points followed by Bagnaia with 186.
On his Ducati race bike, Bagnaia was able to get a great start at the beginning of the 27-lap race. In the first half of the race, Bagnaia was able to extend his lead by a sizeable two seconds, and by lap nine, the lead further swelled to three.
After fourteen laps were through, Quartararo was able to get ahead of Jack Miller to get second place, putting him in sight of Bagnaia for the lead.
Quartararo was able to pace up to Bagnaia in the latter half of the race, sizing down the Italian’s lead to just 1.2 seconds. The Frenchman continued to chip away at Bagnaia’s lead in the final five laps. The gap continued to shrink, and Quartararo charged in harder and harder to pile on the pressure against Bagnaia.
Other Racing-Related Clinchers:
Eventually, and on the final lap, Quartararo was within striking distance from Bagnaia. With the gap down to just three-tenths of a second, it seemed like the Frenchman could have clinched the win away from the Italian in the race’s final moments.
Bagnaia answered back with an impressive sector three of the final lap, which allowed the Italian to keep his lead in the final corner.
The Ducati had it in the bag on the straights against Quartararo’s Yamaha. Bagnaia was able to use the brute force acceleration readily available in Ducati’s Desmosedici race bike, allowing him to take his second-ever MotoGP win following his stellar performance against Marc Marquez in the Aragon round.