Italian Grand Prix: Francesco Bagnaia extends championship lead with sprint win after holding off Marco Bezzecchi

Francesco Bagnaia extended his championship lead to four points with victory in his home race at the Italian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.

The reigning world champion clinched his third sprint race win of the season, holding off title rival Marco Bezzecchi, of VR46 Racing Team, by just 0.369 seconds.

Vctory moves him up to 106 points ahead of Sunday’s race.

“Very happy for everything,” Bagnaia told MotoGP.com.

“Pole position in my own track with an incredible lap time. Then the race, at the start it was quite scary with the rain. I was seeing other [riders] pushing, so I just decided to very calm and understand the conditions, and then try to push when I saw the conditions were a bit better.

“Bez [Bezzecchi] was very close, but we managed to have a bit of a gap, to prevent him having a chance to overtake, and it was a fun battle.”

There was drama from start as Red Bull’s Brad Binder collided with Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing), who was sent into the Turn 1 gravel trap.

Bagnaia briefly lost the lead to Martin at the end of lap two after rain flags were displayed to warn about the track conditions before assuming control in lap four. Martin fell to third behind Bezzecchi at the start of lap five.

Calm was restored as the rain eased and Bagnaia kept a cool head to set the fastest lap of the race with four laps remaining to stretch his lead over his rivals, fending off a late attack from Bezzecchi.

Martin had to dig deep to keep a hold of third position ahead of team-mate Johann Zarco with the pair separated by just a tenth of a second, with VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini taking fifth ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller and Honda’s Marquez.

It was another disappointing day for Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who rounded out the top 10 as his struggles continued.

After the race, it was confirmed that Honda’s Alex Rins has been diagnosed with a fractured right tibia and fibula after falling in lap four.

“Tomorrow for sure will be intense again,” continued Bagnaia.

“Let’s try to be competitive in the same way, hoping for dry conditions, and let’s see.”

Top 10

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team)

2. Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) +0.369

3. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) +0.952

4. Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) +1.009

5. Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) +3.668

6. Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) +3.772

7. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) +3.905

8. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) +6.062

9. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) +6.431

10. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) +6.458

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