Bagnaia takes note and Quartararo and Espargaró keep their pace

There are four riders who completed the first third of the MotoGP World Championship seem to have one more point than the rest. Or rather the mix they make with their bikes. The KTMs are failing, and yet their leader, Brad Binder, manages to get oil out of the Austrian prototype. Although, of course, that only gives him to finish not far from the head, without smelling the podium. At Suzuki they have entered a cycle that seems depressive, once the end of the project has been announced and while their riders try to find accommodation for 2023. In the two races held after the Jerez earthquake, Álex Rins and Joan Mir have finished on the ground , which begins to rule them out as tricks to fight for the title.

At Honda things are even worse than at these two factories, stuck in last place in the constructors’ classification and with a cloudier horizon even with the indefinite stoppage of their number 1, Marc Márquez. And with a bike awaiting solutions that will fall into the hands of three riders who are not even guaranteed a place in the house of the golden wing for next year (Takaaki Nakagami was the best classified this Sunday at the Mugello circuit, eighth, while Márquez was tenth). So there remains the battle between Yamaha, or correctly explained, a Yamaha, that of Fabio Quartararo, the Aprilia in the hands of Aleix Espargaró, and the Ducati battalion, which placed the top five on the grid of the Italian Grand Prix, and that He has Enea Bastianini and Pecco Bagnaia as his references.

The atypical starting line-up was the stumbling block that the favorites had to deal with, getting rid of Fabio Di Giannantonio, the author of the pole, Marco Bezzecchi, second, and Luca Marini, third, although it was these last two who opposed the greatest resistance. “I went all out, aggressive, trying to win, and I couldn’t, because I lost a lot of time with Marco and Luca’s Ducati to overtake. They have done a very good job because coming out ahead as rookies they didn’t make mistakes, it couldn’t happen to them”, explained Espargaró at the end of the test.

The leader’s strongest rival

The Spanish Aprilia rider went out on the track with the intention of fighting to win. Even with the idea of ​​risking more than other times for being a sentimentally important scenario for his brand, although his own bosses were the ones who asked him for head and good sense to return to the garage with a good number of points, which was what the Catalan did . Espargaró provided two very good overtaking precisely to the Ducatis of Marini and Bezzecchi, defended his position very well in the last laps and achieved his fourth consecutive podium, which consolidates him in second position overall in MotoGP, as the closest rival solid of the leader Quartararo. “It is clear that Fabio and I are constantly fighting up front, Pecco has made more mistakes, but when he has everything in place it seems that he is very difficult to beat”, Espargaró highlighted.

And he had it all on the site this Sunday. Bagnaia also did the job of getting rid of the unusual ones, and took an advantage of the ones he likes, oscillating between nine tenths and 1.2 seconds, enough to manage himself and not get into the risk zone. This led him not to make the mistake that took him to the ground at Le Mans, a day in which it seemed that at least he had second place in his hands, and from which he came out with zero points and complicating his options in the World Championship. Because the one who doesn’t fail is Quartararo, worried after practice, but who knew how to turn the situation around to find enough pace to finish second and increase his lead in the general classification. On a day in which the fourth in the running, Bastianini, failed, when he seemed ready to come back. “I think I’ve had my best MotoGP race,” the Frenchman proudly proclaimed, who went well, overtook well and once again got the maximum benefit from a bike that is only working in his hands. A second place that, after eight grand prix, makes him remain the benchmark in the category, although always noticing the encouragement of the unexpected Aprilia-Espargaró duo.