Bagnaia’s Brilliant Three-Peat at Mugello: Ducati Dominates Italian MotoGP, Bastianini’s Last-Lap Heroics Steal the Show

Results from the 2024 Italian MotoGP at Mugello, which is the seventh race out of twenty-one in the world championship series.

* Novice

Francesco Bagnaia secures a third consecutive win at the Italian MotoGP, marking Ducati's 93rd grand prix triumph.

Trailing behind, his teammate Enea Bastianini made a powerful comeback, overtaking Marc Marquez to claim third place before dramatically seizing second place from championship leader Jorge Martin in the last turn.

Had Marc Marquez clinched the victory, it would have continued the remarkable trend where Ducati's 27th win was secured by rider #27 (Casey Stoner), the 63rd by #63 (Bagnaia), the 72nd by #72 (Marco Bezzecchi), and the 89th by #89 (Jorge Martin).

However, the Gresini rider did not make it onto the podium for the first time since crashing while leading at COTA.

Bagnaia received a three-spot grid penalty for blocking Alex Marquez during Friday's session.

As a result, he fell to fifth place on the starting grid, moving Maverick Vinales up to second, just behind the pole position holder Martin, with Marc Marquez joining them on the front row.

Bagnaia quickly nullified his penalty by surging from fifth to first place by the second turn and maintained his lead for the rest of the race.

Throughout the majority of the 23 laps, the top positions were held consistently by Bagnaia, Martin, Bastianini, Marc Marquez, Pedro Acosta, Franco Morbidelli, and Maverick Vinales. It wasn't until later that Marc Marquez managed to overtake Bastianini to secure third place.

The Gresini Ducati rider, who finished second to Bagnaia in the Sprint race, was seen emitting small clouds of tire smoke from the final corner, likely due to his ride-height device.

It remains uncertain if Marquez’s lower top speed was due to the older GP23 model or for other reasons. Nonetheless, the rider with the #93 did not pose a threat to Martin for second place and had to fend off a challenge from Bastianini instead.

In the second-to-last lap, The Beast nudged Marquez aside to reclaim the third spot on the podium, swiftly catching up to Martin and overtaking him. Martin is the racer expected to fill the factory seat in 2025.

KTM newcomer Pedro Acosta stood out as the sole non-Ducati rider within the top seven positions. Fabio di Giannantonio managed to push Maverick Vinales down to eighth place. Notably, Vinales was unique in his tire choice, selecting a medium rear tire instead of the more common medium front and soft rear combination.

New tire pressure regulations for 2024 require that riders maintain a minimum front tire pressure of 1.8 bar, down from the previous 1.88 bar, for at least 60% of the total race distance in a Grand Prix, an increase from the previous 50%. For Sprint races, the minimum pressure must be maintained for 30% of the race

If a driver does not meet this minimum requirement in a Grand Prix, they will receive a post-race time penalty of 16 seconds. For a Sprint or short race, the penalty will be reduced to 8 seconds.

During last year's Mugello sprint race, Brad Binder set a MotoGP top speed record of 227.5 mph (366.1 km/h). On Friday, KTM wild-card Pol Espargaro equaled this record.

A sanctioned test session will take place at the Mugello circuit on Monday, following the race event.

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