Impeccable Bagnaia hangs on for San MArino victory

In front of his home fans the Italian produced a Misano masterclass at the San Marino Grand Prix, leading from start to finish.

In Aragon Marc Marquez pushed the 24 year-old to the limit as he claimed his maiden win. This time it was championship leader, Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who piled on the pressure over the final laps of the 26-lap race.

However, the young Italian held his nerve to claim his second career MotoGP victory.

“I tried to push in the first two or three laps to open the gap and then on the last ten laps when I was seeing that Fabio was coming, it was very difficult,” he said.

“I tried to push in the last few laps and the pace was quite fast, but he had the medium tyres and was quite fast in the last part but we were incredible today.

“I was struggling to win my first race, always missing something, now we have two, so I am very happy.”

It was a fantastic maiden podium for Italian rookie Enea Bastianini on the 2019 spec Avintia Ducati.

The 23 year-old came through the field from 12th on the grid to finish third.

Marc Marquez finished fourth ahead of Jack Miller after Joan Mir was penalised for exceeding track limits on the last lap and demoted to sixth.

With four rounds left in the championship Quartararo leads on 234 points. Bagnaia is second on 186 with Mir third on 176.

Raul Fernandez and Red Bull Ajo team-mate Remy Gardner completed a one-two in the 25-lap Moto2 race at Misano. Sam Lowes finished fourth.

It was an all-Italian podium in the Moto3 class with Niccolo Antonelli and Andrea Migno joining Leopard’s Dennis Foggia. It was his fourth win of the season and secured back to back victories for Foggia, who has moved up in to second in the title race. John McPhee was 13th.