Story: Donovan Fourie
Images: Ducati Mediahouse
On Saturday, during the 2024 World Ducati Week celebrations at the Misano Circuit along the Adriatic Coast of Italy, a rather daring spectacle occurred. Some might even say history was made.
Ducati called together fifteen of its top motorcycle racers from MotoGP, WorldSBK, Italian Superbikes and British Superbikes, gave them all exactly the same motorcycles and had a race.
It was called the Lenovo Ducati Race of Champions, and it could be called history because the playing field was theoretically levelled by riders not having any technical advantage over each other. In MotoGP, we have some riders on 2025 factory bikes while others are on older 2024 bikes. WorldSBK bikes cannot compete with even older MotoGP bikes and national superbikes cannot compete with WorldSBK machines.
Here, everyone was on the same thing. It was down to “may the best rider win”.
In this case, the same machinery was Ducati’s new double-swingarmed Panigale V4 that was unveiled just a day before the event. And this would be this model’s first showcasing.
Strangely, among the heat of talent from some of MotoGP’s best, it was old man Andrea Iannone, who made his return to professional motorcycle racing in WorldSBK this year after a four-year ban for having naughty substances in his blood, who took pole.
The race was fairly processional and yet interesting. Double world champion Pecco Bangaia took the lead and that’s where he stayed. Behind him was old man Iannone followed by WorldSBK rookie Nicolo Bulega. A little way off was multiple world champion Marc Marquez.
Riders that didn’t feature prominently were MotoGP title contender Jorge Martin who had a terrible start to the race and eventually worked his way up to ninth. Also, double WorldSBK champion Alvaro Bautista finished a lowly 12th place, 17.6sec behind the winner. This might be explained by the fact that this was, essentially, a demonstration race and not everyone was willing to risk life and limb for it.
The same didn’t apply towards the front where, in the last two laps, Iannone and Bulega seemed to slow giving the leading Bagnaia a chance to gap them and Marquez in fourth the chance to catch up.
By the last corner, Marquez was right behind Bulega and this is where controversy happened.
The cameras followed Bagnaia across the line in annoying contractual compliance. This left the adoring TV audiences to then see Iannone finish second followed by . . . Marquez.
On his own?
A moment later, the cameras switched to a bewildered Bulega sitting in the gravel trap outside the last turn.
Screenshots of the collision between Marc Marquez and Nicolo Bulega. As Marquez goes up the inside, you can see Bulega trying lift his bike in avoidance before going down after the contact.
None of the official TV cameras caught the crash, showing only a moment later where we saw Marquez making the corner with Bulega sliding off, but nothing of the actual incident or how it came about.
Back in the pits, Marquez claimed that he hadn’t felt any contact with Bulega as he went to overtake him and only heard him sliding off.
Later, a cellphone video captured the incident from behind, showing Marquez going for an inside overtake and Bulega trying to sit up at the last moment to avoid Marquez before clipping his bike and going down.
This is where the controversy starts. Who’s fault was it? Many claimed it was nothing more than a racing incident, which is what most people sitting on their sofas being fanboys of the accused say.
Others went as far as to say it was Bulega’s fault, claiming that Marquez was ahead when the collision happened and therefore was in the right. Others said that Marquez had the inside line and therefore right of way. Some even claimed that it was Bulega’s fault because he “left a gap”.
Let’s chew on some of these claims for a bit.
A racing incident is when it is no one’s fault. It can happen – there are times when a rider runs wide and another comes up the inside and is unable to see the rider who is wide and it’s a bit touch and go. One rider barrelling up the inside of another is not a racing incident.
Yes, Marquez was ahead when the two riders touched, but he was ahead for less than a second. Bulega was already on a set trajectory – he did try to lift his bike up but there was not enough time for him to avoid Marquez.
Then we get to the claims that the rider with the inside line has right of way and the one that Bulega left a gap with many sofa enthusiasts quoting Senna’s famous “if you no longer go for a gap which exists then you are no longer a racing driver”.
This has confused me a bit – so, if you are behind someone who is taking a normal out-in-out racing line and therefore inherently leaving a gap, and you don’t go dashing up the inside, then you are not a racing driver? That would mean that every single motorsport participant throughout the world is no longer a racing driver.
To better deal with the inside line and gap claims, let’s look at what the actual rules say, and here we paraphrase:
It is the responsibility of the person doing the overtaking to ensure that they do so in a safe and responsible manner.
That’s all there is to it.
So it was Marquez’s responsibility to ensure that the overtaking was done responsibly, with no mention of which line was being taken nor any mention of gaps.
The gap rule confuses me further – firstly, did Bulega definitely know Marquez was right behind him? It’s easy for us watching at home shouting at the screens to see it, but by the time Bulega crossed the line to start the last lap, his pitboard would have indicated that Marquez was the better part of a second behind. Marquez did close that gap quickly but how would Bulega know that? He was most likely concentrating on chasing Iannone in front.
And even if Bulega did know that Marquez was behind him and left a gap, does that automatically give Marquez a Free Pass to dive up the inside and take him out? It’s like saying that a shooting victim is at fault for daring to stand where the shooter was aiming…
All this might be forgiven were it a rookie mistake or if it were an isolated incident, but Marquez is now 31 years old and has been a professional motorcycle racer for most of his life. And most of this career has been mired in on-track controversies going back to when he started Moto2 in 2011. Dare we say it, Marquez has most probably been involved in more collisions in Grand Prix racing than any other rider in history. He really should know better.
The next line from the Marquez apologists is “but rubbing is racing” which may sound like a noble and glorious adage after Bulega was able to walk away from the crash. In fact, it’s been nothing short of miraculous that Marquez’s many collision victims have been able to walk away. How long will that last? If Bulega had been taken away in a stretcher, or required air transport to the hospital, would “rubbing is racing” still be noble and glorious?
As this is a South African site, could you imagine Brad Binder being the next victim and is not able to walk away afterwards? Would you keep apologizing for Marquez then?
With controversies over, the main question comes begging – with all the riders on exactly the same bike, do we finally have an answer to who is the best rider? Actually, no.
Pecco Bagnaia won and he is truly a great, headstrong rider. He certainly has earned his two MotoGP world titles and the trust that Ducati has bestowed upon him. But…
Misano is a stone’s throw away from the VR46 Rider Academy HQ. This track is its home stadium and the track which the VR46 riders like Bagnaia, Iannone, Digi, Bezzecchi and others frequent between races and mostly on Panigale V4 superbikes similar to the ones they rode in the Race of Champions. They had a massive home track advantage.
Even the Italian riders who are not part of the VR46 clan have far more experience at Misano than riders from other nations. The results of the Race of Champions speak for themselves – of the top ten riders, eight of them were Italian.
The top finishing non-Italian rider by a long way was Marc Marquez who crossed the line 2.5sec behind Bagnaia. You have to wonder if these results would have stayed the same if the race had been held at, say, Aragon near Marquez’s home in Spain.
Next year Marquez and Bagnaia will be teammates and on the same bike. It is going to be interesting. Let’s just hope Marquez can stop bashing people off.
On a side note: Each of the new Ducati Panigale V4s raced in the Race of Champions was sold off to lucky clients before the race. Pecco’s bike was first to be snapped up and the buyer of Bulega’s bike is possibly less lucky.
