Luca Marini close to the podium with 4th in #ItalianGP, Marco Bezzecchi 8th

Luca Marini scored a good fourth place in front of his home crowd who watched the GP from the hills of Mugello today. Eighth place for Marco Bezzecchi who, after a not bad start, lost the contact with the very first guys.

Starting from the front row on the Ducati Desmosedici GP of the Mooney VR46 Racing Team, Luca immediately moved up to the third position and stayed in the slipstream of the front duo for most of the race. Despite the pain in his right wrist, he kept up the pace of the fastest riders and only lost the podium battle in the final stages of the race. With today’s points, he climbs to P6 in the general standings with 72 points.

It was a more complicated race for Marco who was unable to impose his pace after an excellent warm up. Forced to P8 after the first corners, he finished eighth and confirmed the P2 with 110 points (P2 also among the Teams with 182 points) on the eve of the German GP which will take place next week at the Sachsenring.

LUCA MARINI

I tried to go as fast as possible, I didn’t expect this race. In these cases, when you’re not at 100%, it’s a big advantage to start from the front row. I gave everything, tried to manage in the middle of the race, to catch a breath. When Alex (Marquez) overtook me, I tried not to lose the contact, I pushed even harder. Then with Johann (Zarco) I was in much more difficulty. I no longer had strength in my hand, I was almost crying, because a podium at Mugello would have been, and still is, a dream for everyone. I can’t wait to do this race again next year: the fans were fantastic, we saw a Mugello full of people and also many young people. It’s important to send a message, entertain fans and give as many emotions as possible.

MARCO BEZZECCHI

A real shame, I was fast all weekend and today I expected more. Immediately after the start, at the third corner, I understood that it was going to be a very difficult race. I had no feeling at the front and we need to understand what happened because the bike is the same as yesterday and we haven’t made any changes. Even in battle, I got very close to Jack (Miller) and Aleix (Espargaro) but then I lost the contact. I’m sorry, even for the public, they supported us all weekend and maybe today they were hoping for something different from me. What happened is very strange, but we can immediately recover at the Sachsenring and move on.