MotoGP: Can Ducati keep up their speed at Mugello?
Ducati have won the last three races at Mugello, can they do it again?
Ducati are currently in the best form of their history in MotoGP with three riders in the top 4 of the championship with two race wins and 9 podiums to their names thanks to both the factory riders of Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia and the Pramac Racing duo of Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin, this is not forgetting the duet of wins from Jack Miller who won his first race since 2016 at Jerez before backing this up in Le Mans to catapult him up the championship standings.
Italian Francesco Bagnaia now lies in second place in the championship just 1 point behind the leader Fabio Quartararo as MotoGP finally returns to fan favourite Mugello where Ducati have been victorious for the last three races in 2019, 2018 and 2017 with MotoGP skipping the track in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have seen three consecutive wins by three different riders in Mugello and if Ducati wins again we will see 4 different riders take consecutive victories at the circuit proving the bike is incredibly user friendly. The circuit boasts a straight of 1.141 km (0.7 miles), this straight which plays perfectly into the hands of the superb top speed and acceleration of the Bologna Bullet which enables the Ducati riders to overtake with ease hitting dizzying speeds of 222mph (356.7 km/h) in the 2019 FP3 session piloted by Andrea Dovizioso before hitting the kink on the straight and shedding their speed as much as they can heading into turn 1.
2017 saw Andrea Dovizioso win his home round on Italian soil joined by future teammate Danilo Petrucci on the podium with his tears of joy, then in 2018 we saw Jorge Lorenzo put two fingers up to Ducati who had replaced him just the day before after finally giving him a cut up bathmat stuck to his tank to be able to grip his thighs more to the bike and fight for victory. Finally, in 2019 Danilo Petrucci would be triumphant and return to the podium in factory colours on the top step after a race-long scrap with Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, as expected he was incredibly emotional, something we love to see from the Italian.
It was a dramatic three-way scrap for victory in 2019.
2021 looks to be a similar tale, three Ducati’s are now in the mix and strong enough to fight for the race win on home soil with Johann Zarco desperately hunting down his first MotoGP victory after his best-ever start to a season in the premier class, he has matched his record of three podiums in a season in just 5 races, this is the year for Zarco and we strongly believe he can win a race this year barring massive misfortune and costly mistakes but we cannot discount the factory boys.
Jack Miller heads to the Tuscan circuit with his head held high following talks of a contract extension after signing a 1+1 deal with the factory in 2020, he is expected to be confirmed to race for the squad in 2022 this weekend at Ducati’s home race which follows two back-to-back wins at Jerez and Le Mans, there is no doubt Miller will be looking to triple up his tally and there is no better place than Mugello to do this.
On the other side of the garage we have Francesco Bagnaia who has found himself in a title battle with Frenchman Fabio Quartararo despite many believing it would be Jack Miller who would be contesting for the title this season, Bagnaia has stormed onto the scene with three podiums including the Ducati 1-2 in Jerez and is also chasing his first victory in the class, something tells me we are going to have all three Ducati’s fighting it out to be the top rider this weekend.
A Ducati 1-2-3 is absolutely a possibility.
Featured images – Ducati
