Alex Marquez claimed victory in the Mugello round of the StayAtHomeGP series held by MotoGP, surviving pressure from Francesco Bagnaia to claim the plaudits.
Held over six laps of the virtual representation of the picturesque Italian Mugello circuit, ten current MotoGP riders took part in the event which aims to quench the thirst of MotoGP fans across the world as racing remains shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marquez – who started fourth- managed to wrestle the lead away from Bagnaia as the field fired into Turn 1 for the first time, benefitting from a clash between pole-man Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales to lead early doors.
The pair went down as Quartararo tucked the front of his machine while trying to keep Alex Marquez at bay, wiping out Vinales in the process.
They both dropped back down the field, allowing Marquez and Bagnaia to pull out an early advantage.
Bagnaia looked to be the man on form in the opening laps, passing Marquez several times, but several errors dropped him back behind the Spaniard.
Eventually though Marquez managed to find a rhythm, edging his lead out to just over a second at around mid-distance, and keeping this gap constant until a late crash from the Pramac Ducati ace let him off the hook.
Luckily for Bagnaia the leading duo had built up such an advantage he was able to re-join and secure the runners-up result, seven seconds down on the victorious Marquez.
Vinales managed to rebound well from his earlier incident to complete the podium finishers, passing Marc Marquez late on as the reigning MotoGP world champion crashed out, ultimately dropping to fifth by the chequered flag behind the similarly recovering Quartararo.
The Petronas SRT man was clearly the class of the field in terms of pure pace, but struggled to keep his M1 upright, crossing the line just 1.5 seconds down on Vinales-posting the fastest lap of the race on the final tour.
Alex Rins managed sixth ahead of Suzuki team-mate Joan Mir, while the final classified finisher was Tech 3 KTM pilot Miguel Oliveira in eighth.
Iker Lecuona and Aleix Espargaro struggled for both speed and consistency during the contest, and ultimately failed to cross the line before the end of event timer ran out.
