In Mugello, the fight for the first points was an Italian thing. Of the two who command the World Cup. Pecco Bagnaia, who had taken pole position in the morning, beat Marco Bezzecchi, his immediate chaser in the championship, over the 11 laps of the short race (Sprint), already behind him by 4 points (106 to 102).
Marc Márquez, who started second, had to be content with seventh after being touched by Jack Miller that dropped him from third. He was a career caster and did not get any compensation.
After a highly disputed qualifying session, with controversy between Bagnaia and Marc Márquez, for the Catalan taking advantage of the slipstream of the Italian to be second, the heated duel was repeated at the start of the sixth Sprint of the season.
At the start, Bagnaia maintained the preferred position of pole position, closely followed by Márquez, but his brother Àlex, who was starting third, crashed when he collided with Binder who sacked into the turn. Third was Jorge MartÃn, with a spectacular start, ahead of Marini and Miller.
The man from Madrid wanted Márquez for the episode in Portugal. He passed him on the second lap with a strong overtake to which Marc did not put up much resistance. And a few curves later he stormed the Bagnaia lead. At the same time, the white water warning flags were shown, a sign that it was possible to change motorcycles (to the one with scratched tires).
On the third lap, Miller collided with Márquez on the side and the Catalan had to go wide and dropped to eighth position. In front, Bagnaia and MartÃn had a hard time and the Italian retook the lead and set the best lap to try to open a gap. Bezzecchi got into the party overtaking Martin and chasing the leader.
The victory was going to be played by the two Italians who command the World Cup, separated by one point. Bagnaia stayed ahead setting the pace and opened a gap of 4 tenths with four laps to go. In the first five positions, four Ducati, up to Marini. Behind, Miller and Márquez, who had climbed one position (7th).
The champion remained strong in front, reaching the last lap with 3 tenths of a margin over Bezzecchi, who could not catch up or try to overtake.
It is the third victory in the Sprint for Bagnaia, who arrived in Mugello on crutches due to a cracked foot. Third was Jorge MartÃn, in front of Zarco, who squeezed him in the last turn. Márquez finished seventh and Aleix Espargaró entered the points with eighth place.
In the six Sprint events held, only two drivers have scored points in all of them: Bagnaia (three wins, five podiums, 56 points), and Jorge MartÃn (one win, four podiums, 42 points.
Ãlex Rins suffered a fall in the race, went through the circuit’s Medical Center and had to be evacuated to a hospital in Florence to be examined for a possible fracture in his right leg.
Brad Binder, with the KTM, set a new official top speed record in the Sprint, putting his machine at 366.1 km/h. Mugello, due to its endless straight, is usually the runway where the most records are broken, along with Qatar.
The previous maximum speed in Mugello -and in the World Cup- was 363.6 km/h, set by Jorge MartÃn last year on the Italian track.
