Francesco Bagnaia dominates at Mugello as Marc Marquez crashes out again
Despite making a good start, Bagnaia was immediately overtaken by Jack Miller who went from fourth to first.
However, the reigning world champion responded one corner later as he came through at turn two.
With the KTM rider struggling to hold the pace of Bagnaia and Martin, a collision nearly took place between himself, both Marquez brothers and Luca Marini.
Alex Marquez out-braked himself going into turn one and managed to somehow squeeze between his brother and Marini, before running wide at turn one.
That allowed Miller to swoop back underneath him although Marquez was also on the inside of the Australian.
In fourth place and managing to hold pace with Marini, Marc Marquez then made a big mistake as he crashed out for the fourth consecutive Grand Prix.
Marquez’s crash came at the final corner as he lined up a move on Marini, however, the Repsol Honda man was out very wide before losing the front-end.
While the gap between Bagnaia and Martin remained stable at half a second, yellow flags were deployed in sector three as Miguel Oliveira crashed.
Alex Marquez, who was fourth, made his first attempt at taking P3 away from Marini on lap 12, however, the Spaniard ran slightly wide which allowed Marini back through.
Marquez then made his move stick at the same corner on lap 13, after using his better rear grip to get close along the start-finish straight.
Lap 14 was a crucial one in the battle for victory as Bagnaia, who started the lap four tenths clear, found more than six tenths in order to clear off by a full second.
A tough race for the Marque family was made even worse when Alex crashed out of P3 at turn two [lap 15].
Desperate to claim a home podium, Marini tried to respond immediately after making a mistake at the final corner, and although he momentarily got back ahead of Zarco, the Italian was unable to resist Zarco for much longer.
Not giving up on P3, Marini was staying close to Zarco although an overtake was proving difficult to make.
