* Rookie

A delighted factory Ducati star Francesco Bagnaia kept Yamaha's reigning champion and title leader Fabio Quartararo at bay to claim home victory in the 2022 Italian MotoGP 𒁃at Mugello.

Not far behind them, Aleix Espargaro made it two Iꦿtalian manufacturers on the podium with his fourth rostrum in a row (and fifth of the s♎eason) for Aprilia.

Pole starter Fabio di Giannantonio held his adva🐠ntage into Turn 1, with fellow rookie Marco Bezzecchi passed by team-mate Luca Marini for second place.

Marini and Bezzecchi made it a VR46 one-two by the end of the lap, with Monster Yamaha's Quartararo, Aprilia's Espargaro and factory Duca🎃ti's Bagnaia on the attack behind di Giannantonio.

The late-braking Bezzecchi continued to clock up his first-ever laps in the lead of a MotoGP race until Bagnaia put hi𓆉s red machine ahead into Turn 1 at the start of lap 9 of 23.

Quartara🌳ro took third from Marini soon after with Espargaro now at the rear of a five-rider lead group.

Bagnaia, who crashed out of the le👍ad at Mugello last season, had built a 0.7s lead by the time ꩵQuartararo snatched second place from Bezzecchi with 12 laps to go.

The Frenchman's 𒁏;lack of top speed repeatedly left him vulnerable to retaliation on the main straight, but his braking ability was just enoug🉐h to keep Bezzecchi and Marini at bay.

Finally breaking clear of the VR46 ma♒chines, Quartararo now had 10 laps to bridge a 1.3s gap to Bagnaia. The Frenchman initially chipped away a few tenths, but in a repeat of their Jerez duel Bagnaia again held firm ahead to claim his second victory of the season.

The battle for the final podium place became a VR46 vs Espargaro contest, the Aprilia rider eventually breaking through the&💛nbsp;yellow-and-black wall with seven laps to go.

Pramac Ducati's Johann Zarco snatched fou♉rth from Bezzecchi on the very final lap, with Marini and KTM's Brad Binder completing a close group. Taka๊aki Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira followed.

Marc Marquez rode from eleventh on the grid to tenth during his final race before stepping back from the 2022 MotoGP season to un✤dergo a fourth a⭕rm operation. The eight-time world champion is predicted to be sidelined for at least several months and will thus turn attention꧒ to 2023.

Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro crashed out on lap 6 with a big 💃accident at Turn 9.

di Giannantonio and Maverick Vinales were tied on time for eleventh. di Giannantonio's team-mate and triple 2022 race winner Enea Bastianini 👍was outside the top ten in the early laps, climbed steadily up the order to sixth, then made a costly mistake at Turn 4 to send his 'peace' liveried Gresini machine bouncing through the gravel. Bastianini's third fall of the weekend.

Jorge Martin, demoted from 11th to 14th on the grid for😼 obstructing another rider in FP3, set a new all-time MotoGP top speed record of 363.6km/h on his way to 13th for Pramac Ducati.

Bagnaia's team-mate Jack Miller 🐲was a distant 15th, having nevꦿer featured in the top ten today.

Darryn Binder was forced to serve a long lap penalty for 🃏a yellow flag infringement earlier in the weekend, but recovered to beat Franco Morbidelli's factory Yamaha in the closing stages.

A miserable weekend for Suzuki ended with Joan Mir (Turn 1) and then Alex Rins (Turn 12💞) falling in quick succession on lap 9.

Sunday's race was watched by just 43,000 fans, compared with 84,000 at the pre-Covid 2019 round. The weekend total 🤡was 74,000 compared with 139,000 fans in 2019.

MotoGP now heads straight to Barcelona for next weekend's Catalan roun✅d,🍸 which is followed by a post-race test.