Francesco Bagnaia
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Francesco Bagnaia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Bagnaia at the 2018 Qatar Grand Prix | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Italian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Turin, Italy | 14 January 1997||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | Ducati Lenovo Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 63 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia (born 14 January 1997 in Turin) is an Italian motorcycle racer competing in MotoGP for the Ducati Lenovo Team.[1] Bagnaia is best known for becoming the 2018 Moto2 World Champion, after winning 8 races during the season.[2] He became just the second rider from the VR46 academy to win a world title after Franco Morbidelli in 2017.[3]
Career[]
Early career[]
Born in Turin (Torino), Italy, Bagnaia was already successful early on in Minimoto, as he won the European MiniGP championship in 2009. Bagnaia made his pre-GP 125 Mediterranean championship debut with Monlau Competición team in 2010 and finished 2nd in the championship. In 2011 he took part in the Spanish Championships in the 125cc category, winning a race, and finishing third in the final standings.[4] In the 2012 CEV Moto3 season he rode a Honda NSF250R and once again finished 3rd in the championship behind Álex Márquez and Luca Amato, with a race win and two 2nd places in seven races.[5] Bagnaia was recruited to be a member of the VR46 riders academy, and is still part of the academy to this day.[6]
Moto3 World Championship[]
San Carlo Team Italia (2013)[]
Bagnaia made his Grand prix debut in the 2013 Moto3 World Championship, with Team Italia FMI riding a Honda alongside his teammate Romano Fenati. The season was a disappointing year for Bagnaia as he did not manage to get a single point in the 17 races he participated in. His best race was a 16th-place finish at Sepang.
SKY Racing Team VR46 (2014)[]
In 2014, Bagnaia switched teams to join the newly formed Sky Racing Team by VR46, riding a KTM with Romano Fenati again. After failing to score points in his rookie season, Bagnaia made clear improvements, finishing in top 10 five times during the first 7 races, with a 4th-place finish at Le Mans as his best result, where he also set the fastest lap of the race. Bagnaia missed the races at Assen and Sachsenring due to injury. After scoring 42 points in the first 7 races of the campaign Bagnaia slumped badly during the second part of the season, only finishing in the points twice of the last 9 races, clearly affected by his injury. He finished the season in 16th position with 50 points.
Mapfre Team Mahindra Moto3 (2015)[]
In 2015, Bagnaia made another team and bike change, this time joining Aspar Team on a Mahindra, with new teammates being Juanfran Guevara and Jorge Martín. In the fifth race of the season in France, Bagnaia got his first podium at Le Mans, finishing the race in 3rd place behind Romano Fenati and Enea Bastianini.[7] In the next race at Mugello Bagnaia finished 4th, missing the podium by 0.003 seconds. He was on his way to another podium finish at Silverstone but crashed with 2 laps remaining, fighting with Niccolò Antonelli for the 3rd place. Despite improving his championship position by two places, and gaining 26 more points than the previous year on a new bike for the third straight season, this time a Mahindra, it was still an up and down year for him. Bagnaia only finished in the top 10 during five races. He also missed points in seven races, unclassified in five of those. He finished the year 14th place in the championship standings, with 76 points.
Pull & Bear Aspar Mahindra Team (2016)[]
In 2016, Bagnaia started the season with a podium finish at Losail and another podium finish at Jerez, finishing 3rd on both occasions. At his home race in Italy Bagnaia secured another 3rd position, beating Niccolò Antonelli by 0.006 seconds. Followed by a crash at Barcelona, Bagnaia secured his first Grand Prix win at the historic Assen circuit, in what his 59th Moto3 race, and the first win for Mahindra history too.[7] He had four podiums in the first eight races of the season, and found himself fighting for the title. After two average races and a crash at Brno, Bagnaia got his first pole position in the rain-affected Silverstone and finished second behind Brad Binder in a thrilling race. Bagnaia won his second race of the season at Sepang, winning the race comfortably with a big gap after Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Lorenzo Dalla Porta all crashed out in the same corner during the beginning of the race, which was filled with multiple crashes.[8] He finished the season with 145 points to place 4th in the Moto3 Championship with a total of 2 wins and 6 podiums. Bagnaia would have had an opportunity to finish 2nd in the World Championship behind Brad Binder, but was taken out in both Phillip Island and Valencia by Gabriel Rodrigo. Rodrigo pushed out Fabio Di Giannantonio in Australia who went down and collected Bagnaia with him. In Valencia Rodrigo made a highside crash on the first lap approaching the last corner, Bagnaia was unable to avoid.
Moto2 World Championship[]
SKY Racing Team VR46 (2017–2018)[]
2017[]
After 4 seasons in the Moto3 category, Bagnaia moved up to Moto2 racing for Sky Racing Team VR46, where he last rode in 2014. For the 2017 Moto2 World Championship, he would have Stefano Manzi as his teammate. In just his fourth ever Moto2 race at Jerez Bagnaia finished 2nd. He finished 2nd in the next race as well at Le Mans after having qualified in 2nd place, missing pole position to Thomas Lüthi by just 0.026 seconds. Bagnaia took a third podium at Sachsenring, finishing 3rd behind Franco Morbidelli and Miguel Oliveira. At Misano Bagnaia originally finished the race 4th behind Dominique Aegerter, Thomas Lüthi, and Hafizh Syahrin however Aegerter was later disqualified, promoting him to 3rd fo his fourth podium of the season. He was crowned Moto2 Rookie of the year after the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, and finished his rookie season with 174 points to place 5th in the championship standings, scoring points in 16 of the 18 races.
2018[]
Bagnaia opened the season with a win in Qatar, having led the race from start to finish. Bagnaia took a second win in Austin after a hard fight with Álex Márquez winning the race with a gap of 2.4 seconds and also setting the fastest lap of the race. At Jerez Bagnaia finished 3rd behind Lorenzo Baldassarri and Miguel Oliveira holding his starting grid position. Bagnaia took his first pole position in Moto2 at Le Mans, and like the race in Qatar he led from start to finish. The win was also his 3rd podium at Le Mans since 2015. Bagnaia took a 4th win at Assen, starting the race from Pole Position and leading the entire race. After qualifying 3rd on the grid in Sachsenring, Bagnaia finished the race down in 12th place, having been forced outside of the track after Mattia Pasini, who fell down in front of him in the last corner on the second lap, and despite being down in 26th, he made up fourteen places in two laps, including overtaking Álex Márquez the final corner of the last lap. At Brno Bagnaia finished third and lost the championship lead to Oliveira, but quickly retook the championship lead at Austria, winning his 5th race of the season. Bagnaia won his sixth race of the season at Misano from pole position. He took a 5th straight podium at Buriram, winning the race with his teammate Luca Marini in second place. He took his 8th win of the season at Motegi after Fabio Quartararo, who initially won the race, was disqualified due to low tyre pressure. After finishing 3rd at Sepang he was crowned Moto2 World Champion with his 12th podium of the season, his teammate Luca Marini taking his first ever Moto2 win as well, his 5th podium of the campaign.[9]
Bagnaia finished every single Moto2 race he participated in, 36 in total. He scored points in 34 of them and was on a 30 race point scoring streak, starting from Barcelona in 2017. The streak ended when he retired from his first MotoGP race at Losail.
MotoGP World Championship[]
Pramac Racing (2019–2020)[]
2019[]
After two seasons in the Moto2 category championship, Bagnaia was promoted up to take part in the 2019 MotoGP World Championship with Pramac Ducati.[10] He was offered a ride in MotoGP in 2018 by Pramac after his stellar rookie season in 2017, where he took four podiums and finished 5th in the championship behind Franco Morbidelli, Thomas Luthi, Miguel Oliveira, and Álex Márquez, but Bagnaia decided to stay, with an opportunity to take the championship title. He replaced fellow Italian rider Danilo Petrucci, who went to the Factory Ducati Team, replacing three time MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, who took the seat vacated at Repsol Honda Team by Dani Pedrosa after he decided to retire after 13 seasons in MotoGP, becoming an official test rider for KTM.
After failing to score points in Qatar, where he retired from the race due to a damaged front wing, Bagnaia took his first two points in the MotoGP World Championship with a 14th place in Argentina, having started the race from 17th on the grid. Bagnaia finished 9th in Austin getting positions after Marc Márquez and Cal Crutchlow crashed out from the race in separate accidents, and both Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir were penalized with ride through penalties for jumping the start. Prior to the fourth race at Jerez Bagnaia had three straight podium finishes, starting from the 2016 Moto3 season. He qualified 10th on the grid but crashed out on the sixth lap, fighting with Pol Espargaro. At Le Mans where Bagnaia won the Moto2 race in 2018, he crashed out on the sixth lap after an incident with Maverick Vinales. In the next race at Mugello, his home Grand Prix, Bagnaia had a solid start to the weekend. He topped the second Free Practice time sheets on his way to qualify 8th on the grid. However he crashed in the last corner on the 11th lap while in 7th place. It was the first time in Bagnaia's career that he had failed to finish three races in a row, all of them with crashes. In Austria Bagnaia had his best race weekend since his time in Moto2, both in terms of his qualifying, advancing to Q2 and starting from 5th on the grid, and race pace, managing to cross the line in 7th place. At Phillip Island Bagnaia finished the race in 4th place, his best result of the season, missing the podium by just 0.055 seconds to his Ducati teammate Jack Miller. Bagnaia finished his rookie season in the premier class with 54 points, placing him 15th in the championship standings. He missed the final race at Valencia due to injury.
2020[]
For the 2020, Bagnaia received a GP20 bike, same as his teammate, Jack Miller. However, in a season that was majorly affected with races constantly being postponed or cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the first race in MotoGP wasn't held until July 19th at Jerez, with the first scheduled race at Losail being cancelled for the premier class. Despite this, Bagnaia had a strong first weekend, qualifying 4th on the grid and ultimately finishing the race in 7th position. The next race, held at Jerez, Bagnaia was even stronger than the previous race, qualifying on the front row of the grid in 3rd place. Unfortunately on lap 19, with 6 laps remaining, him well settled in to his 2nd place and on his way to a maiden podium, he had to retire with engine failure. Next race weekend at Brno Bagnaia crashed during FP1, breaking his leg, and he therefore missed the remainder of the weekend, and the two next races, being replaced by replaced by Michele Pirro. He returned for his home race at Misano, where he took his first podium of his MotoGP career, with a second-place finish behind Franco Morbidelli, fellow VR46 Academy member.[11] He fell into a bit of a slump after his first podium however, only scoring 8 points in the last six races, eventually finishing the season down in 16th place, with 47 points to his name.
Ducati Lenovo Team (2021–present)[]
2021[]
For 2021, Bagnaia moved up to the factory Ducati team, along with former teammate Jack Miller. He started the season well, qualifying for pole position ahead of teammate Miller and the factory Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales, at the season opener in Losail. This marked his first career MotoGP pole position, and he would later finish the race in 3rd. In the second race in Qatar, Bagnaia finished in 6th place. At Portimao Bagnaia initially took Pole position during Qualifying, however his lap time was disallowed due to Miguel Oliveira's crash and yellow flag, which meant Bagnaia started the race from 11th. During the race Bagnaia worked his way up to finish in 2nd place behind Fabio Quartararo after Jack Miller, Alex Rins and Johann Zarco all crashed out. He finished 2nd the following race weekend in Jerez too, making it three podiums from four races. The middle of the season saw him score regular points, before he had another 2nd place in Austria. Bagnaia took his maiden premier class win at Aragon, where he set the all time track record in qualifying,[12] and led the entire race starting from pole, successfully defending seven overtakes by Marc Márquez during the final stages of the race.[13] Bagnaia managed to repeat this achievement the following weekend in Rimini; he broke the lap record to take pole and led the entire race to take his second career victory in MotoGP.[14] Bagnaia secured his third consecutive pole position in Austin, and finished the race in third, cutting the championship lead of Fabio Quartararo to 52 points, with three races remaining. In Misano, Bagnaia would continue his incredible hot streak, getting pole position, setting the fastest lap of the race, before he crashed out of the lead with 5 laps to go, securing the title for Fabio Quartararo. This would not deter Bagnaia however, securing a fifth consecutive pole position in Portimao, something which has only been done in the premier class after the 1000cc rule change by Marc Márquez in 2014, and Fabio Quartararo earlier this season.[15] He won the race in Portimao, as well as the season closer in Valencia, finishing second in the championship, with 252 points, 26 points behind World Champion Fabio Quartararo.
Career statistics[]
CEV Buckler Moto3 Championship[]
Races by year[]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Bike | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Pos | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Honda | JER 8 |
NAV 2 |
ARA Ret |
CAT 1 |
ALB1 Ret |
ALB2 2 |
VAL Ret |
3rd | 73 |
Grand Prix motorcycle racing[]
By season[]
Season | Class | Motorcycle | Team | Number | Race | Win | Podium | Pole | FLap | Pts | Plcd | WCh |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Moto3 | FTR Honda | San Carlo Team Italia | 4 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC | – |
2014 | Moto3 | KTM | Sky Racing Team VR46 | 21 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 50 | 16th | – |
2015 | Moto3 | Mahindra | MAPFRE Team MAHINDRA Moto3 | 21 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 76 | 14th | – |
2016 | Moto3 | Mahindra | Pull & Bear Aspar Mahindra Team | 21 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 145 | 4th | – |
2017 | Moto2 | Kalex | Sky Racing Team VR46 | 42 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 174 | 5th | – |
2018 | Moto2 | Kalex | Sky Racing Team VR46 | 42 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 306 | 1st | 1 |
2019 | MotoGP | Ducati | Pramac Racing | 63 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 15th | – |
2020 | MotoGP | Ducati | Pramac Racing | 63 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 16th | – |
2021 | MotoGP | Ducati | Ducati Lenovo Team | 63 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 252 | 2nd | – |
Total | 152 | 14 | 33 | 13 | 11 | 1104 | 1 |
By class[]
Class | Seasons | 1st GP | 1st Pod | 1st Win | Race | Win | Podiums | Pole | FLap | Pts | WChmp |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moto3 | 2013–2016 | 2013 Qatar | 2015 France | 2016 Netherlands | 69 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 271 | 0 |
Moto2 | 2017–2018 | 2017 Qatar | 2017 Spain | 2018 Qatar | 36 | 8 | 16 | 6 | 3 | 480 | 1 |
MotoGP | 2019–present | 2019 Qatar | 2020 San Marino | 2021 Aragon | 47 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 353 | 0 |
Total | 2013–present | 152 | 14 | 33 | 13 | 11 | 1104 | 1 |
Races by year[]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Class | Bike | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Pos | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | Moto3 | FTR Honda | QAT 23 |
AME 22 |
SPA 26 |
FRA 20 |
ITA 24 |
CAT 17 |
NED 26 |
GER 30 |
IND Ret |
CZE 28 |
GBR Ret |
RSM Ret |
ARA 17 |
MAL 16 |
AUS Ret |
JPN 20 |
VAL Ret |
NC | 0 | ||
2014 | Moto3 | KTM | QAT 10 |
AME 7 |
ARG Ret |
SPA 8 |
FRA 4 |
ITA Ret |
CAT 10 |
NED DNS |
GER DNS |
IND Ret |
CZE 17 |
GBR 21 |
RSM Ret |
ARA 24 |
JPN 13 |
AUS 11 |
MAL Ret |
VAL 16 |
16th | 50 | |
2015 | Moto3 | Mahindra | QAT 9 |
AME Ret |
ARG 11 |
SPA 7 |
FRA 3 |
ITA 4 |
CAT 20 |
NED 11 |
GER Ret |
IND Ret |
CZE 12 |
GBR Ret |
RSM 8 |
ARA 11 |
JPN 15 |
AUS Ret |
MAL 17 |
VAL 13 |
14th | 76 | |
2016 | Moto3 | Mahindra | QAT 3 |
ARG 23 |
AME 14 |
SPA 3 |
FRA 12 |
ITA 3 |
CAT Ret |
NED 1 |
GER 10 |
AUT 11 |
CZE Ret |
GBR 2 |
RSM 21 |
ARA 16 |
JPN 6 |
AUS Ret |
MAL 1 |
VAL Ret |
4th | 145 | |
2017 | Moto2 | Kalex | QAT 12 |
ARG 7 |
AME 16 |
SPA 2 |
FRA 2 |
ITA 22 |
CAT 13 |
NED 10 |
GER 3 |
CZE 7 |
AUT 4 |
GBR 5 |
RSM 3 |
ARA 10 |
JPN 4 |
AUS 12 |
MAL 5 |
VAL 4 |
5th | 174 | |
2018 | Moto2 | Kalex | QAT 1 |
ARG 9 |
AME 1 |
SPA 3 |
FRA 1 |
ITA 4 |
CAT 8 |
NED 1 |
GER 12 |
CZE 3 |
AUT 1 |
GBR C |
RSM 1 |
ARA 2 |
THA 1 |
JPN 1 |
AUS 12 |
MAL 3 |
VAL 14 |
1st | 306 |
2019 | MotoGP | Ducati | QAT Ret |
ARG 14 |
AME 9 |
SPA Ret |
FRA Ret |
ITA Ret |
CAT Ret |
NED 14 |
GER 17 |
CZE 12 |
AUT 7 |
GBR 11 |
RSM Ret |
ARA 16 |
THA 11 |
JPN 13 |
AUS 4 |
MAL 12 |
VAL DNS |
15th | 54 |
2020 | MotoGP | Ducati | SPA 7 |
ANC Ret |
CZE DNS |
AUT | STY | RSM 2 |
EMI Ret |
CAT 6 |
FRA 13 |
ARA Ret |
TER Ret |
EUR Ret |
VAL 11 |
POR Ret |
16th | 47 | |||||
2021 | MotoGP | Ducati | QAT 3 |
DOH 6 |
POR 2 |
SPA 2 |
FRA 4 |
ITA Ret |
CAT 7 |
GER 5 |
NED 6 |
STY 11 |
AUT 2 |
GBR 14 |
ARA 1 |
RSM 1 |
AME 3 |
EMI Ret |
ALR 1 |
VAL 1 |
2nd | 252 |
References[]
- ^ "Francesco Bagnaia Rider Profile, Ducati Lenovo team". 14 March 2021.
- ^ "Francesco Bagnaia 2018 Moto2 World Champion". 11 November 2018.
- ^ "Morbidelli, Bagnaia hail Rossi impact after landmark VR46 day". 13 September 2020.
- ^ "Francesco Bagnaia Rider Profile Ducati Lenovo team". 14 March 2021.
- ^ "FIM CEV Repsol". www.fimcevrepsol.com.
- ^ "GPone.com". GPone.com.
- ^ a b Sports, Dorna. "Bagnaia reunited with his race-winning Moto3™ machine". www.motogp.com.
- ^ "Bagnaia wins chaotic and controversial Malaysian Moto3 race – GPxtra".
- ^ Sports, Dorna. "Francesco Bagnaia: 2018 Moto2™ World Champion". www.motogp.com.
- ^ Sports, Dorna. "Bagnaia confirmed in MotoGP™ in 2019 and 2020". www.motogp.com.
- ^ "Morbidelli, Bagnaia hail Rossi impact after landmark VR46 day". Crash. 13 September 2020.
- ^ MotoGP Aragon: Francesco Bagnaia breaks lap record to take pole Motorcycle News, 11 September 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021
- ^ "Bagnaia wins Aragon Grand Prix" – via www.bbc.com.
- ^ "Pecco Bagnaia storms to win in the Grand Prix of San Marino and the Riviera di Rimini to secure his second consecutive victory in MotoGP. Miller finishes fifth and Pirro eleventh". www.ducati.com.
- ^ "Algarve MotoGP: Bagnaia sets new lap record for fifth straight pole". www.motorsport.com.
External links[]
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- 1997 births
- Living people
- Italian motorcycle racers
- Moto3 World Championship riders
- Moto2 World Championship riders
- Sportspeople from Turin
- MotoGP World Championship riders
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- Ducati Corse MotoGP riders