While Francesco Bagnaia repeated last year’s home Mugello MotoGP triumph with a race time 2.060s faster, his 2022 victory rival Fabio Quartararo was 15.165s slower in eleventh.
After last year’s dismal attendance, which caused some to question the financial viability of the event, the Mugello MotoGP crowd almost doubled for 2023.
Just 0.3s from Francesco Bagnaia and victory in the Saturday Sprint, then fastest in warm-up, MotoGP title contender Marco Bezzecchi slumped to a subdued eighth in his home grand prix.
Brad Binder has revealed that his KTM RC16 wasn’t maxed out when he set a new all-time MotoGP speed record of 366.1km/h (227.5mph) during the Mugello sprint.
Raul Fernandez made decent early progress to climb from 19th into the points during Sunday’s Italian MotoGP, but the remainder of the race proved a gruelling physical contest.
Marc Marquez insists he was not deliberately waiting for Francesco Bagnaia during qualifying for the Italian MotoGP and instead hoped to get a tow from Marco Bezzecchi.