Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Bagnaia and Ducati Lenovo Team win the sprint race of the Brembo Italian Grand Prix. Bastianini crashes on lap three.

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MotoGP | Round 7 - Italian GP 2024 | Saturday 1 June 2024

Bagnaia and Ducati Lenovo Team win the sprint race of the Brembo Italian Grand Prix. Bastianini crashes on lap three following a coming together with an opponent

• Second place at the finish line for Marc Márquez aboard Team Gresini MotoGP’s Desmosedici GP machine

Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team have come out victorios in the sprint race of the Brembo Italian Grand Prix, with the reigning world championship leading from start to finish aboard his Desmosedici GP #1. Enea Bastianini crashed out of the encounter on lap three after a coming together at turn one with Jorge Martín.

Bagnaia enjoyed the perfect start from second place on the grid and took the lead entering third one. Pecco dictated the pace for all the 11 laps and managed to create a small margin over his nearest opponents at halfway point that allowed him to cross the line a lonely winner despite the attempts to bridge the gap by Marc Marquéz in the closing laps. With his first sprint race win this year (the previous one dates back to August 19th, 2023, at the Austrian GP) and today’s crash by championship leader Martín, Bagnaia is now 27 points shy of first place in the standings.

Following an excellent start that saw him move up to second place from sixth on the grid, Bastianini suffered a crash after a coming together with Jorge Martín at the start of lap three. Their racing lines crossed following an overtaking manoeuvre by Enea on his opponent.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action tomorrow for the final day at the Mugello International Circuit, with the 23-lap, seventh race of the season that will get underway at 14:00 local time (GMT +2) following the 9:40, traditional warm up session. Due to a three-position penalty received, Bagnaia will start the encounter from fifth place on the grid.

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I’ve very happy because after the Barcelona race, in which we missed out on the win at the last lap, we managed to do it here and, above all, we made it to the finish line. I felt really good with the bike from the get-go, and I tried to be as consistent as possible, but it wasn’t easy as there was an unexpected grip drop at the front-end. Let’s see what we’ll be able to do for tomorrow: it’s going to be a very different race also because we’ll be starting from row two: still, we have the potential to do well.”

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – DNF
“I was having a good race. When I saw that Jorge (Martín) was riding a bit on the limit, I tried to overtake him and we went a bit wide, then he dove in and that’s when the coming together took place. Unfortunately, the race ended too soon and it’s a shame because we had what it takes to do well. I think the incident could have been avoided, but what matters is that we focus on tomorrow knowing we have the pace to do well. We have everything we need but so far we haven’t been able to capitalise as much as we could have, so let’s hope the momentum will swing in our direction.”