Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) took his fourth consecutive MotoGP victory earlier today in Misano – setting a record for consecutive MotoGP wins for Ducati. Bagnaia led from early in the race, but was hounded by competitors all the way to the flag. First, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) closely shadowed Bagnaia for most of the race before being passed by Enea Bastianini (Ducati) with several laps remaining.
Bastianini quickly closed the gap to Bagnaia and seemed to be the faster of the two riders. As a Ducati rider, and Bagnaia’s factory teammate next year, Bastianini clearly understood he had to be extremely careful if he were to pass Bagnaia. Ultimately, Bagnaia held off Bastianini to take the win by the narrowest of margins, with Viñales coming home third a few seconds back of the two Ducati riders.
Championship points leader Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) could only manage 5th place today, and leaves with a 30 point advantage over Bagnaia.
For full results of today’s race, take a look here. You can find additional details on the MotoGP site.
The battle at the end of the race between the Beast & Peco from the street view as seen on motogp.com looked as if they were rubbing shoulders ,I have seen the helicopter view and there was lot’s of room between the two riders & were never in danger of colliding ,apparently the ducati boss even apologised to Bastianini , he did like they have been asked by Ducati bosses ,which is to ride to win,pass safely & don’t take out another ducati rider especially one who is in a fight for the championship .
The two day test shows yammy with a better top speed on their 2023 machine & Fabio smiling & singing praises ,this reminds me of Honda @ the start of this year with their supposedly new & improved 2022 bike ,well that didn’t last to long as it all went pot ????? ,now with Suzuki gone let’s hope that Yamaha & Honda are able to improve their machines and get riders able to compete against the Ducs & the surging Aprillias.
I think Taka will have to take a break and Ai Ogura promoted to Moto-GP ,together with Rins should give the LCR team a real boost.
Would be good for the sport to see another manufacturer get into Moto-gp.
tom line, he’ll be fast and maybe win another championship (though I’d sa
Bastianini almost took Bagnaia out when almost hitting him in the rear tire, it would have been disaster for both teams and Ducati would’ve been really upset…
ducati’s tail section is awesome.
Does look good, doesn’t! I wonder if it is meant to influence the detaching airstream so as to reduce the advantage of a following rider. Can’t see any benefit otherwise.
Nick
I feel so bad for Fabio. No matter how hard he tries, his horse just isnt capable.
Don’t feel bad for him. He’s showing just how great a rider he is and he’s learning new skills by having to over ride the bike that except for power is otherwise excellent. He may just hang on to the championship if he can finish the remaining events near the front. Who knows, that Ferrari engineer may deliver 20-30 more horses for next season and then it’s game on again.
I think Eli Tomac’s engine has more beans than the MotoGP bike.
Oh, looks like FQ may have gotten his Christmas present early. He’s fastest in the 2nd day test morning and his trap speed was a whole 1 mph slower than Martin with the fastest on his Ducati.
It’s looking pretty good. Unfortunately they don’t get to race the new engine until next year.
Bagnaia’s confidence level is very high now and the next track is said to be another that favors Ducati. This should be a compelling run over the next seven races.
It will be funny when MM returns and shows them how it’s done.
The best thing about Mark returning to form would be that it’d force Yamaha to up their game. On a bike-to-bike basis Yamaha doesn’t seem interested in competing with these hordes of faster Ducatis and Aprilias, but they can’t ignore it when their Japanese blood rival, Honda, beats them like a drum.
Right now their mindset is it’s our One Guy against All Those Italian Cheater Bikes. They pin their hopes on having the one superior rider in the class to make up the difference. If Marc returns to form, and Yamaha no longer has the one superior rider, and Yamaha continues to lose ground not only to Italy but also to Honda, the fire alarms will finally go off in Hamamatsu.
This is highly unlikely. MM’s fine tuning at the edge is gone – he’ll have to rebuild it and I don’t honestly think he’ll EVER have it like he did. Then there is the psychological edge also destroyed – “we’re only immortal for a limited time” (NEP) – bottom line, he’ll be fast and maybe win another championship (though I’d say maybe 25% chance of that), but never be so ridiculously dominant in abilities like he was.
You’re probably right. Time has marched on for Marc, as it does for everyone. Still, it will likely require a return to form from Marc and Honda to light Yamaha’s fire. Otherwise, lacking any serious competition from Honda, it sure looks like Yamaha is content to rest on their laurels while continuing to rely on Fabio to mask their obvious deficiencies.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not too particularly jazzed about the prospect of MotoGP becoming nothing more than Fabio vs the Red Hordes, which is what it basically is now. With Suzuki dropping out of the series at season’s end, and Yamaha going from four bikes to two in 2023, next year looks like it will be even worse.
MotoGP seriously needs Honda, and, to a lesser extent, KTM, to get back into the fight. Yamaha needs it, too. They need someone besides Fabio to start taking points away from all these Ducati and Aprilia riders, especially with Aprilia adding two more bikes to the grid next season. Fabio can’t have the other Yamaha riders and all four Honda riders languishing in the back of the field, out of the points. On those days when his bike isn’t capable of running at the front, he needs his fair share of help from the rest of the field.
Ditto, Marc. If #93 returns to form, or some reasonable semblance of it, he’s going to need that same help from Fabio and the rest of the field.
The value of having a Dani Pedrosa as your team mate. How many points he kept other riders from getting.
Or an Enea Bastianini, Jack Miller, Jorge Martin, Johann Zarco, Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini, and Fabio DiGiantonio, along with Aleix and Maverick over at Aprilia. That’s a lot of wingmen riding shotgun for Pecco, taking points from Fabio.
The Ducati guys know better than to pass Pecco, unless Pecco screws up so badly that they can pass him without troubling him in the least. Mighty difficult to do, when all the bikes are essentially identical, and Pecco has the latest parts. The Aprilia guys will try to pass him, but can’t, yet they can still finish ahead of Fabio on a bad track for the Yamaha.
Meanwhile, Fabio has no one helping him, not even his own R&D department back in Iwata.
Pretty certain that the entire paddock and all the manufacturers realize Fabio is and has been riding head and shoulders over the rest of the field, Pecco included.
That many wingmen model only works if you’re as consistent as Fabio or Marquez (pre crash). Otherwise there are too many occasions where they take points away from you. He seems to have his program pretty dialed in now, though.
See Curly’s post above. Yamaha’s 2023 “1st draft” engine is putting up the 2nd fastest trap speed.
Elsewhere I read that Honda has contracted Kalex to do new aluminum (going back from carbon fiber) swing arms for them. Highly unusual for Honda to bring in any outside help.
Boring and exciting at the same time.