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

Grand Prix ItalyBagnaia fractures ankle in Le Mans crash, should recover for Italian GP21/05/2023 AT 13:36 «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." Francesco Bagnaia sets record lap time at Mugello to edge out Marc Marquez Pol Espargaro admits he considered retirement after Portimao crash Bagnaia, of Ducati, started in pole position after an incredible display in Q2 qualifying, setting an all-time lap record on the circuit to finish 0.078 seconds ahead of Marc Marquez. Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin completed the podium in third.

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.