– Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) won the Italian Grand Prix of the 2026 MotoGP season on Sunday in front of more than 88,000 spectators at the Mugello Circuit. Under perfect conditions with sunshine and an air temperature of just under 30 degrees Celsius, the race was marked by a duel between the Italian brands Aprilia vs. Ducati. In the end, Aprilia clearly prevailed.
Read more MotoGP live ticker Mugello: Bezzecchi takes home victory ahead of Martin and Bagnaia
Marco Bezzecchi won the race with a 3.5-second lead over his teammate Jorge Martin. It is the first home victory in the premier class for both Bezzecchi and Aprilia. Bezzecchi achieved the triumph with his special helmet design in memory of Alex Zanardi, which he had already used in the sprint on Saturday.
“It’s incredible! I’ve dreamed of this since I was a child. To realize this dream now is simply fantastic,” Bezzecchi cheered at the finish, before switching from English to Italian and adding: “Mugello, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart! Today we gave everything and had a lot of fun. Thanks to all of you, you are fantastic. A kiss to you!”
Jorge Martin, who completed the Aprilia triumph in second place, is also happy: “I am very, very happy. I tried to regain my confidence, but I still had some difficulties this weekend. We have to keep working. At the same time, I am very grateful to Aprilia for the work done. Marco was impressive today. Congratulations to him!”
Behind Bezzecchi and Martin, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) finished in P3. The Ducati factory team appeared with a special design. The occasion is the 100th anniversary of the brand. Pramac-Yamaha also ran a special design. Additionally, as often in Mugello, there were a number of special helmet designs. Besides Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini also raced with a different helmet design than usual. The same applies to Marc Marquez.
Meanwhile, there were no experiments regarding tire choice this time. All 22 MotoGP riders started the race with the medium compound from Michelin on both the front and rear tires over a distance of 23 laps.
Bezzecchi wins start – Fernandez falls out of top 15
Unlike in the sprint on Saturday, polesitter Marco Bezzecchi won the start this time. While he was the first to enter turn 1 (San Donato), sprint winner Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) braked too late in Bezzecchi’s slipstream.
Starting from P2, Fernandez immediately fell out of the top 15. When braking for turn 1, he was apparently sucked in by Bezzecchi. However, Fernandez just managed to avoid contact with the factory Aprilia of the championship leader, as well as an excursion into the gravel trap.
At the front, Bezzecchi and Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin alternated in the first half of the first lap. When the first of 23 laps was completed, Bezzecchi led ahead of Martin, followed by Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez (Ducati), and Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini-Ducati).
Bagnaia takes the lead but cannot hold it
It did not take long for Bagnaia to overtake both factory Aprilias and thus take the lead of the field himself. The Mugello winner of 2022, 2023, and 2024 then set the pace for many laps. Bezzecchi and Martin were his first pursuers, with only Bezzecchi initially managing to really keep up with Bagnaia.
At the start of lap 14, Bezzecchi passed Bagnaia on the inside at San Donato and regained his initial lead in the race. Meanwhile, Bagnaia had to let go. Two laps later, at the same spot on the track, Martin also found a way past the Ducati rider. This restored Aprilia’s one-two lead in the Italian Grand Prix.
Ogura narrowly misses podium
While Bezzecchi rode to victory and Martin was safely second, Bagnaia was attacked by Ai Ogura (Trackhouse-Aprilia) in the last lap. In the last corner (), the Japanese rider actually briefly got past, but Bagnaia immediately countered and just managed to bring third place to the finish. A triple victory for the Aprilia brand was averted by the Ducati factory rider by a few thousandths of a second.
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“This podium belongs to the fans here,” said Bagnaia, who explained: “It was really difficult because I had big problems with rear grip in the last laps. Aprilia and Bezzecchi did a fantastic job. I just tried not to leave any gap for Ai. Many thanks to all the fans and to my team, we deserved such results.”
Ai Ogura, mentioned by Bagnaia, finished fourth. He missed the podium by just 0.034 seconds at the finish line. Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46-Ducati) completed the top 5.
Raul Fernandez, after his botched first corner and temporary drop to 15th position, still finished in P8 behind Pedro Acosta (KTM) and Marc Marquez. However, he received a one-position penalty after the race, moving Fermin Aldeguer up to P8 and Fernandez to ninth (result of the 2026 Italian Grand Prix in Mugello).
The points positions were completed by Diogo Moreira (LCR-Honda), Brad Binder (KTM), Joan Mir and Luca Marini (both Honda), as well as Franco Morbidelli (VR46-Ducati) and Jack Miller (Pramac-Yamaha).
Meanwhile, Miller’s Pramac teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu (16th) narrowly missed the points due to a late track limits penalty. Michele Pirro (Gresini-Ducati) finished the Italian Grand Prix as a replacement for the injured Alex Marquez in 19th position as the last classified rider.
Rins and Bastianini crashed, Crutchlow gives up
Three riders did not finish on Sunday, two of them due to crashes. Alex Rins (Yamaha) crashed at San Donato (turn 1). Enea Bastianini (Tech3-KTM) crashed at exactly the same spot as in the sprint on Saturday, namely in Scarperia (turn 10).
Cal Crutchlow (LCR-Honda) did not complete his first MotoGP weekend since the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix. He gave up after ten of the 23 laps due to muscle pain. For the 40-year-old Briton, who is substituting for the injured Johann Zarco, it was his 180th MotoGP race. He has won three of them, all for LCR-Honda.
At the top of the 2026 MotoGP overall standings, Marco Bezzecchi has extended his lead over teammate Jorge Martin to 17 points.
The MotoGP calendar continues directly next weekend (June 5 to 7) with the Hungarian Grand Prix. It will be held for the second time on the twisty Balaton Park Circuit.
In terms of average speed, the Balaton Park Circuit is by far the slowest track on the calendar. The track record is held by Marc Marquez with only 151.9 km/h average. For comparison: The fastest track on the calendar is Phillip Island in Australia, where Fabio Quartararo holds the record with an average of 185.1 km/h.
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