Marco Bezzecchi wins Mugello MotoGP as Aprilia delivers knock-out blow to Ducati

Aprilia completes a fourth 1-2 finish of the season after Marco Bezzecchi dominates the Italian MotoGP at Mugello, while Francesco Bagnaia takes third despite fading late on. 

Unlike the sprint, Bezzecchi made the best start of anyone on the front two rows as he kept the lead into run one.

However, it was an awful turn one for Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez, who dropped from second to 17th after running off track at turn one. 

As the two factory Aprilias battled for the lead on lap two, Bagnaia made the biggest move of all as he passed Jorge Martin for second place. 

The double MotoGP world champion then converted that into first place at the start of lap three as he out-dragged Bezzecchi into turn one.

Marc Marquez was still in fourth place after all the movement of the first three laps, although Fabio di Giannantonio suffered a poor start dropping from seventh to 12th. 

With Bagnaia setting a very fast pace out front, Marquez was starting to come under pressure from Pedro Acosta, who was clearly faster than his fellow Spaniard. 

Acosta made his move on lap six at the final corner, but Marquez, who was getting great drive out of the final turn, came back past on the start-finish straight. 

Acosta made another move on Marquez at turn ten, but the KTM star was unable to break clear before the start of lap eight. Marquez then performed a double overtake on Acosta and Fermin Aldeguer, who had momentarily got past the nine-time world champion. 

While Bezzecchi was beginning to pressure Bagnaia for the lead on lap 11, Yamaha’s Alex Rins crashed at turn one. 

Enea Bastianini then crashed two laps later at the same corner that caught him out in the sprint on Saturday, that being turn ten. 

At the head of the field, Jorge Martin was starting to catch the two leaders as Bezzecchi got ever closer to launching an attack. 

Bezzecchi launched said attack at the start of lap 14, as he dived to the inside at turn one, which gave Bagnaia no chance to respond. 

Bezzecchi then put one second into Bagnaia who began losing time to Martin in the battle for second. Lap 16 was a pivotal one, as Martin took second place away from Bagnaia at turn one, while Acosta was finally through on Marquez for P4. 

But in typical Marquez fashion, the factory Ducati rider kept coming back at Acosta before Ogura and di Giannantonio halted the Marquez charge.

With four laps to go there was contact between Ogura and Acosta, as the pair renewed their battle from Barcelona. Ogura came away from the battle in fourth, while it appeared as though Acosta lost a piece of bodywork. 

Ogura then produced a stunning charge for P3 as Bagnaia faded rapidly, however, the Ducati rider held off Ogura despite the Japanese rider trying a move at the final corner.

Bagnaia was able to get back through after using a tighter line, while Bezzecchi took a dominant win ahead of Martin. Fifth went the way of di Giannantonio ahead of Acosta, Marquez and the recovering Fernandez.