MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia silencing doubters

Francesco Bagnaia has repeated his teammate’s heroics to take a double win in 2021.

Francesco Bagnaia took a stunning debut victory at Aragon before doubling his MotoGP win tally to two in his home race of Misano just a week later, silencing anybody who has dared to question his abilities aboard a MotoGP machine in recent years after a tough 2019 rookie season and a difficult DNF heavy 2020 campaign which saw him miss three races due to injury.

Bagnaia is an exceptionally talented rider, his racing CV backs this up with his name etched permanently into the history of the sport after being crowned the 2018 Moto2 World Champion following a stunning season with the Sky VR46 team. This move earned him a well-deserved move into the Pramac Ducati team for 2019 where he would struggle to P15 overall in the standings with six DNF finishes, this DNF record tore apart his previous title of being a rider who doesn’t crash, failing to register a single DNF in his two seasons in Moto2 with a 30 race point-scoring streak, very impressive.

This troublesome year sparked some rumours and much talk of ‘Pecco’ not being good enough or fast enough for MotoGP with some talk floating around of a potential move to the Avintia team for 2021 if he failed to improve. Thankfully he did exactly that and improved dramatically running as high as P2 in the Andalucian Grand Prix at Jerez 2020 before a mechanical issue would end his podium dreams, a race later he fractured his tibia and was forced to watch rookie Brad Binder win at Brno then exasperate over both Austrian races at tracks built perfectly for Ducati, knowing he had a shot at some glory in all three races.

Misano was red, white and green this weekend. 

His time away from the circuit dramatically motivated him to come back and perform and prove the naysayers wrong, doing exactly that upon his return at Misano taking his first podium before leading the following race until a stricken visor tear off put an end to his race causing him to crash out, he would finish the season 16th overall with 47 points to his name, being chosen over Johann Zarco to race in the factory Ducati team, another move which was met with confusion as his performances were not as you’d expect for a now factory rider despite his podium.

In 2021 we have seen the 2018 Bagnaia return but this time he’s even better than before, suddenly he is battling for a MotoGP World Championship with six podiums and two MotoGP victories to his name, not only this but he has just one DNF to his name after crashing out of Mugello on the opening lap, unable to concentrate after being told that Jason Dupasquier had tragically passed away 30 minutes prior to the MotoGP race.

Now a two-time MotoGP victor Bagnaia has battled the very best to come out as a race winner not once but twice against Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo, completely turning his MotoGP career around and proving exactly why Ducati hired him. It was almost a certainty that he would win at Aragon then do the double at Misano judging from his history at the circuit and his recent Ducati V4s training where he lapped within three seconds of his new lap record set on the Ducati GP21 during the Misano One race weekend.

Bagnaia has silenced anyone who dared to doubt Ducati’s decision to hire him and has proven he is the real deal, MotoGP better watch out because the Bologna factory have an incredibly fast Italian and they will stop at nothing to win the title.

Featured images – Ducati