A Perfect Race Weekend for Bagnaia

Francesco Bagnaia had a perfect weekend at his home GP as he emerged victorious in both the sprint and the main race. He is now leading the championship standings with a lead of 21 points

- Azaman Chothia

Sprint Race

In the qualifying session, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) secured pole position. Starting in P2 and P3 were Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) respectively.

As the lights went out, Bagnaia took the holeshot with Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) gaining positions to get into P2. The latter was unable to hold on to P2, though, with the result that Bagnaia led Marc Márquez and Martin on the first lap.

Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) was eager to carve through and gain a few positions. He saw a small gap left open by Alex Márquez (Gresini Racing) and took it, but the door closed and a slight touch between them sent Alex into the gravel trap. Binder was then given a long lap penalty for this incident. Bagnaia, Marc Márquez, Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), Luca Marini, Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team), and Miller was the order the first time across the line. Then there was more drama as there were spurts of rain around the track. The rain flags came out and riders were now able to swap bikes if they wished to.

Martin decided to hit the front with Miller and Márquez following closely.