MADRID, 1 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) will try to take advantage of the heat of the stands to extend his great form and add a little more emotion to the fight for the title in the MotoGP category of the Motorcycle World Championship, which arrives this weekend in Misano for the dispute of a San Marino Grand Prix in which the Spaniards Sergio García Dols (GasGas) and Izán Guevara (GasGas) want to continue with their hand in hand in Moto3 and Augusto Fernández (Kalex) regain command in Moto2.
The current runner-up in the world and the Italian brand have returned strongly after the summer break and the ‘Pecco’ has won the Grand Prix of Great Britain and Austria, which together with the one achieved in Assen (Netherlands) before the holidays, they make him the first to chain three successes in a row.
Bagnaia and the ‘Desmosedici’ are in good shape, but their bad start to the season continues to weigh them down and this good run has only served them, for the moment, to rise to third place overall and continue behind the leader Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia).
The Frenchman was second at the Spielberg circuit to add 20 valuable points and extend his lead over the Catalan driver, who could only finish sixth and was 32 points behind the current champion. Behind, Bagnaia stood at 44 points, a distance that is still far and that he hopes to reduce in a track that may be favorable to him.
The Italian already won last year at the Marco Simoncelli Circuit, a track where Ducati usually performs well and where he will also have the support of the ‘tifosi’, although the ‘Diablo’ has also performed well on the ‘M1’, with the who was second on his last visit and also in 2019 behind Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda), so he will be a candidate in a race threatened by adverse weather for Saturday and Sunday.
Aleix Espargaró will also try to maintain his options to fight for the title, but he needs his Aprilia to be much more competitive and to be able to be in the front since he has accumulated five consecutive Grand Prix without being on the podium and in only four of the 13 contested has he finished ahead of Quartararo. Last year he was eighth.
All in all, Ducati, which has won four of the six possible podiums after the break thanks to the two third places of the Australian Jack Miller, will surely be the rival to beat in a weekend in which Repsol Honda arrives ‘touched’ after a bad season and almost looking more at 2023.
The brand confirmed that the Spaniard Joan Mira will be Marc Márquez’s new partner and will have a key test after this Grand Prix where the eight-time world champion could get back on the bike, the best news for the Japanese factory. Pol Espargaró, who will be next year in the new project in the ‘queen’ category of GasGas, will try to have a good weekend and get out of his bad moment, with only two points added in the last five appointments.
GARCIA DOLS AND GUEVARA, TO RECOVER DOMINION IN MOTO3
On the other hand, in the other two categories, Moto3 and Moto2, the national motorcycling title aspirations are still firm, especially in the ‘small’ where Sergio García Dols and Izán Guevara continue to stand out.
The two GasGas riders from Jorge Martínez Aspar’s team have not returned to the same level as in the first stage of the campaign and although they left Silverstone empty-handed and could not be on the podium at Spielberg either, they clearly dominate.
Despite this, the man from Castellón, fourth in 2021 at Misano, and the Majorcan, twelfth, who are separated by just five points in the standings, maintain a good lead over his closest rival, the Italian Dennis Foggia (Honda), who he is almost two races away from the lead (49 points) and that he will try to repeat his 2021 victory to maintain his options.
For his part, Augusto Fernánndez saw his great streak of three consecutive victories at the Austrian Grand Prix come to a halt, where he could only finish fifth, which cost him first place in Moto2, now held by the Japanese Ai Ogura, winner in Spielberg.
However, the man from Madrid has in his hand the power to regain dominance since he is only one point behind the Asian before a weekend where the Italian Celestino Vietti (Kalex), dominator of the first section, hopes to rejoin a fight that he has to 27 points.