Francesco Bagnaia cruised to his third MotoGP win of 2023 in the Italian Grand Prix to further extend his points lead over Marco Bezzecchi, who finished eighth.
The factory Ducati pilot managed to fend off a rapid-starting Jack Miller across the opening couple of bends at Mugello to maintain the leadership, though he soon came under pressure from a charging Jorge Martin who quickly dispatched Miller’s KTM.
Having opted for the soft rear tyre on his Ducati, Martin looked to have the upper hand on speed as he remained consistently within half-a-second of Bagnaia over the opening half of the encounter.
The reigning MotoGP world champion’s decision to plump for the harder medium compound rear tyre looked to be paying off as the race entered its final third though as he started to edge away from the Spaniard, Bagnaia easing clear to eventually take the chequered flag just over a second clear of Martin to secure his third GP success of the year.
The battle for the final spot on the rostrum was more hotly contested meanwhile as Luca Marini endeavoured to grab a second podium appearance of the season, the VR46 racer at one point losing out to Gresini’s Alex Marquez – who dropped back early on having started third – before re-taking the place after Marquez crashed out at Turn 3.
Marini then came under threat from the sister Pramac entry of Johann Zarco, initially losing the spot at the final bend with just half-a-dozen circulations remaining before then snapping back at Turn 1 moments later – though Zarco would get the last laugh after diving through at Turn 3 soon after.
The Frenchman found himself unable to escape the advances of Marini over the final few laps, though ultimately was able to do enough to hang onto third and secure the second-successive double rostrum result for the Pramac squad.
Brad Binder came home a lonely fifth for KTM having been unable to match the blistering pace of the Bolgona bullets out in front, the South African crossing the line a few seconds clear of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro who got the better of Miller for sixth in the closing stages.
Bezzecchi struggled to make forward progress and had to make do with eighth in the end, while the still-not-fully fit Enea Bastianini claimed ninth after fending off Yamaha duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo who finished tenth and 11th respectively.
Maverick Vinales suffered a sub-par Italian outing as he could muster up only 12th on the other factory Aprilia, while Takaaki Nakagami was the only Honda to see the finish after Marc Marquez crashed out early on.
The six-time premier class champion was pushing to move clear of Marini for a rostrum spot across the opening half-dozen tours, though in his haste to find an opening ended up running wide at the final bend and into the dirty outer extremities of the corner – the result being a loss of the front of his Honda as he ended his day in the gravel trap.
Miguel Oliveira was the other rider to fail to make the finish alongside the Marquez brothers, the RNF Aprilia rider crashing out at Turn 9 while running within the points-paying positions just prior to mid-distance.
Alex Rins failed to take the start having broken his right leg as a result of a crash during Saturday’s sprint outing, the LCR rider joining fellow Honda ace Joan Mir on the sidelines after the 2020 premier class world champion broke a finger in a crash during practice on Friday.
Bagnaia’s commanding victory means he has now opened up a 21-point advantage over Bezzecchi heading into next weekend’s German GP at the Sachsenring, with Martin remaining solidly third overall with his second-straight runners-up result.
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