Francesco Bagnaia beats Enea Bastianini in photo-finish to make Ducati MotoGP history at Misano
Starting on pole for the first time in four years, Jack Miller made a brilliant staಌrt as he led from Bastianini and team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.
Further back there was a big crash at turn one as Brad Binder clipped a slow-starting Jo▨hann Zarco which resulted in the Pramac rider crashing into Michele Pirro and Pol Espargaro, who were both positioned on his outside.
There was further drama at the beginning of lap two as race🦹 leader Miller crashed at turn four.
A꧋ disastrous start for Ducati then got worse as Marco Bezzecchi crashed on the same lap at tu๊rn 10.
With the hot temperatures proving to be 🌺difficult to ov👍ercome, Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio both crashed on lap three.
At the front, Ba🎐stianini led following Miller’s🌠 crash but the Gresini rider nearly lost the front-end at turn 14, instead producing a brilliant save.
Still in the lead,𒊎 Bastiani💫ni was soon relegated to second as Bagnaia came through at turn eight.
The future factory Lenovo Ducati rider was then bumped down to third as Maverick Vinales made a very brave move for P2 on lap fo﷽ur.
In fifth and sixth, Espargaro made a mistake trying to close in on the top four🍒 of Bagnaia, Vinales, Bastianini and Luca Marini, which gifted th🦂e place to Quartararo.
As Vinales bꦦegan lining up a move on Bagnaia for the lead, Quartꦅararo started to slowly bring himself into the front group.
Following his early mistake at turn 13, Espargaro was stru𝔉ggling to keep pace with Quartararo, who for the time being also saw his charge towards Marini halted.
Doing everything possible to꧟ close in on Marini, Quartararo was instead losing time before receiving a track limit warning. Also on a track limit warning was Vinales who continued to pressure Bagnaia for the lead.
As Bagnaia and Vinales ramped up the pace, Bastianini made a mistake at tu🙈rn ten which allowed Ma𝔉rini through.
However, Bas𒁏tianini responde༺d immediately in order to regain third heading into 'Curvone' [turn 11].
Despite losi🍃ng five tenths, Bastianini set a time faster than Miller’s pole time in order to claw his way back o🐼n the rear of Vinales’ Aprilia.
With a m꧑ove for the lead so often appearing to be close, Vinales was instead attacked ♍from behind as Bastianini took second spot away from the Spaniard [turn one] with eight laps to go.
With Vinales seemingly having 🐎no response for Bastianini🐷, the Gresini rider started catching Bagnaia very quickly.
With Bagnaia quicker in sectors three and four, opportuni🅺ties for Bastianini to make an overtake were proving to be at a premium.🦹
And although he made a mistake at turn four to begin the final lap, stunning pace from Bastianini - set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap - 🐎saw him set up a move coming out of the final corner, however, Bagnaia held on by just 0.034s over the line.
