MotoGP News
San Marino brought double joy for Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia as he scored his second win in as many weeks. He becomes the third rider in 2021 to win two races on the bounce – team-mate Jack Miller and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo being the other two.
It was an Italian clean sweep in the race with Bagnaia taking both the pole and the win, Enea Bastianini scoring fastest lap and of course Ducati taking manufacturer honours. It’s the first time Italy has taken a clean sweep of pole, win, fastest lap across both rider and manufacturer categories since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix – Andrea Dovizioso took pole, win and fastest lap for Ducati.
By pure coincidence, Dovizioso made his first appearance of the 2021 season in San Marino as the fourth different replacement rider for Franco Morbidelli.
Championship leader Quartararo scored his ninth podium of 2021, losing five points to Bagnaia in the title race but remaining a comfortable 48 points ahead with five rounds remaining. Quartararo remains the only rider to win more than three races in 2021 – the Frenchman currently with five. Quartararo is also the only rider to have scored points in every round of the 14 rounds so far.
In the rookie standings Jorge Martin remains the leading rider with 71 points, however his nearest rival Bastianini scored his maiden podium to cut the gap to just ten points. Bastianini became the 14th different rider to score a podium in 2021. Which means this season is now just one rider away from matching the 15 of 2020 - the highest amount of riders to score a podium in one season since 1977.
For Ducati the race was the 150th in which it had appeared on the podium and the make’s 177th podium finish. It was also the ninth time the make has taken back-to-back wins in the premier class of MotoGP.
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