Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia won the MotoGP Sprint race in Mugello in comfortable fashion, with championship leader Jorge Martin crashing out with four laps to go.
Marc Marquez capitalised on Martin’s incident to chase Bagnaia to the end and claim second place, with Pedro Acosta claiming another rostrum appearance in third.
The factory Ducati duo made lightning starts to lead 1-2 into the opening corner, with Bagnaia leading Bastianini, while Brad Binder gained nine places to rise to fourth.
However, Marquez pulled a move on Binder to move back into the top four places. Further ahead, Martin powered past Bastianini down the straight to reclaim second.
The second lap saw Fabio Quartararo and Miguel Oliveira collide in the third sector when the Trackhouse made a late lunge that took both competitors out of the race.
Next time around, Bastianini tried to overtake Martin into Turn 1, but he went in too hot and collided with the Pramac as his rival capitalised and cut back underneath.
Martin would progress on in second place while Bastianini ended up out on the spot. The stewards opted to take no further action, leaving Martin to venture onwards.
Meanwhile, Acosta had been confirmed as a KTM works rider for 2025 on the eve of the race and he completed an overtake on his future team-mate Binder for fourth.
Franco Morbidelli was sustaining a much more encouraging weekend on the Pramac and he became the next to pass Binder’s KTM to rise into the top five positions.
Bagnaia was beginning to utilise his strong practice race pace to open up a near-one second gap over Martin, who had Marquez courting him behind in close pursuit.
Marquez would attempt a late braking move on his compatriot down the inside at Turn 1 on Lap 5, but the Gresini Ducati rider was unsuccessful the first time around.
However, the next lap would witness the eight-time champion go to the inside on the start-finish straight to establish a fine move on the current championship leader.
Elsewhere, Honda rider Joan Mir retired with five laps to go to wreck a promising starting position as the Japanese marque’s struggles this season continued to loom.
Martin was bidding to open up his 1.5-second advantage over Acosta, but the Spaniard pushed his GP24 too hard into Turn 4 and went down with four laps remaining.
Marquez was beginning to cut the deficit to a tentative-running Bagnaia in the closing laps, but the Italian had enough in hand to take his first Sprint win of the season.
Bagnaia’s vital Sprint success and Martin’s ill-timed mistake has seen the gap in the standings close to 27 points, with Marquez impressing again to land second spot.
Acosta celebrated the announcement regarding his future with a fine third place, with Pramac’s Morbelli finishing fourth and Maverick Vinales passing Binder late on.
Behind the lead Aprilia was Binder on the KTM and VR45’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Gresini’s Alex Marquez pipped Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro to cover the last points.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez settled for 10th place, a second back from the tussle ahead. VR45’s Marco Bezzecchi was 11th, four seconds clear of KTM’s Jack Miller.
Alex Rins was the leading Yamaha, sandwiched between the two KTM riders as Pol Espargaro was 14th, with LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco following them home in 15th.
Takaaki Nakagami recovered from his earlier one-lap woes to climb to one place behind his team-mate, with the LCR riders beating out Augusto Fernandez’s GasGas.
Aprilia’s test rider Lorenzo Savadori finished second last, with Luca Marini once again taking the chequered flag as the last classified runner on his works Honda bike.
