Special liveries abounded this weekend at Mugello, and we’re absolutely here for it. Especially the helmets: some riders came up with truly interesting themes. Many were animation-inspired. That in itself made us all warm and fuzzy inside. We saw the best-ever attended Italian MotoGP in history, with more fans streaming through the gates than ever before at the breathtaking Mugello circuit.
Moto3:
Perrone was demoted to the back of the grid for Going Slow during the Saturday Qualifiers. Pérez started his race with a Long Lap Penalty behind his name. The first lap transpired without major incident, something that rarely occurs in the Lightweight class, especially considering how close the racing was at Mugello.
This did not last much longer, though. About halfway through the second lap, a bundle of riders tripped over each other (and the curb), and went tumbling out of the pack. We soon learned the names of the Unfortunate Three: Pérez, Rossi, and Moodley. Poor Pérez didn’t even have time to serve his penalty.
During Lap Three, Almansa went a little wide into Turn One, and tried to cut back to the curb, only to find Ogden already there. Almansa side-swiped the hell out of Ogden, before going down and sliding out from mid-pack without collecting any other riders.Ogden, meanwhile, continued as if nothing had happened.
A cluster-bomb of a chain-reaction happened on the ninth lap – first, Pini very enthusiastically dive bombed down the inside of his teammate Muñoz; Muñoz, in turn, went a teeny bit wide as a result, inadvertently pushing Fernández and Lunetta into each other. The latter duo went tumbling off the track together, before they could even process what’d happened. Shoutout to Perrone: from last on the grid, to the lead of the race on Lap Eleven. Even though it was short-lived, it was most impressive.
Exiting Turn Twelve on Lap Eleven, Pini and Kelso rubbed knees, resulting in Pini toppling over and going for a mid-track slow-motion slide all the way down to the next corner. A powerless Pini looked on as bike after bike shot towards him in his slow-twirling dance, each time avoiding him by millimetres. O’Shea had the worst of it, forced to go for a gravel-to-grass-stint in order to not give Pini a bike-tyre belt. We’re convinced we could hear Pini saying ‘òi merda’ rapidly and repeatedly with each twirl. After he and his motorcycle finally came to rest in the gravel, Pini checked that he still had all his extremities intact, then proceeded to limp his scraped-up bike back to the pits.
It was, as it usually is at Mugello, a brilliantly close race. Sponsors were left mildly confused about who they actually sponsored by the end of the race, due to all the sticker-swapping that had occurred throughout.
Quiles snatched up his maiden victory, with a gap of only six-thousandths of a second separating him from Carpe, who had to settle for second. Crying like a soccer fan whose team had lost the Championship final by one point, Foggia claimed third. Quiles’ maiden win came with add-ons: he took his first pole, first podium, and first Moto3 race win all at the same time, and at the same circuit as Mentor Marc Márquez. What a proud teacher. One more thing to add: his winning margin of six-thousandths of a second was declared the closest winning margin ever at Mugello.
Holgado had to start the race with a Long Lap Penalty, for causing a crash at Aragon last time out. García has left us. Fare thee well, Sergio, wherever you may go! While out on his Sighting Lap, Öncü apparently picked up an uninvited passenger: a wasp had somehow gotten into his leathers, stinging him as a sign of its gratitude for the once-in-a-lifetime experience. Rude much? Luckily, he managed to get it out on the grid, and proceeded to act like nothing of the sort had happened.
The Middleclass race started out close, much resembling the prior Moto3 race. It did eventually stretch out a lot more than the other race, though. There was also much less catastrophe contained within the Moto2 race’s script.
Navarro unceremoniously crashed on Lap Nine, and was seen trundling off through the gravel of Turn One. Newby Fernández (yes, another one) was ordered to drop a position for overtaking under a yellow flag – it seems that this rule must not exist where he had come from.
By far the most entertaining, and definitely the most stressful, part of the race played off across the last three laps, in the shape of a PVP between Canet and Moreira for third position. The overtakes were harsh, the retaliations swift. Anyone who says they didn’t expect to see a catastrophic crash at any moment, was either not watching, or is lying.
While wagging his right leg, González passed the checkered flag to claim the win. Arenas got second, and Canet won the war for third. In his Parc Fermé interview, Canet noted that the battle with Moreira was ‘beautiful’, ‘BUT…’ Apparently, he wasn’t too pleased with a few of Moreira’s more adventurous attempts at a pass.
Not forgetting our local Moto2 guy: Binder finished the race in a quiet twenty-first.
MotoGP:
No Marini this weekend – the Italian is still recovering from his injuries after a Suzuka Test crash. Our old buddy Taka Nakagami stood in for him at Mugello.
Distant rains kept playing psychological warfare games with the teams throughout the Sprint Race, at one stage threatening to roll over the circuit and cause utter chaos. This, however, did not happen. When Márquez Senior lined up post-Warm-Up in his one-hundredth career pole position, he went through the familiar motions every rider goes through at every race start. Except when he didn’t.
The red lights were already on when Marc suddenly leaned over to his left, fondling something with his right hand for a moment. We do not know exactly how he did this, but within a flickering millisecond, Marc managed to return his hand to the throttle just in time to wrench it open for the start of the Sprint. Still, he lost a couple of positions, all of which he reeled back in within four laps. During his post-race interview, even Marc had a hard time explaining what had happened – we could confirm that it was a niggle with the Launch Control, at least.
A first-corner chain reaction ended calamitously for Binder and Zarco: there they were, trying to get around the bend, when DiGi gave Binder a gentle tap, in turn sending Brad out of the pack, horizontally. During his trip off the track, Binder collected Zarco, too. Both riders went tumbling off their motorcycles, which had seemingly decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make baby Katondas. Within the same mayhem, Bezzecchi and Acosta punted into one another; neither crashed, though Bez’s Aprilia had its left front lip ripped off and ejected into outer space.
At the final corner – still on the opening lap – Acosta ran in hot, refused to back off, ran wide as heck, then continued his wide-run into a full-blown crash. It was at around this time that the Timing Tower had a massive seizure. Luckily the IT department was quick in administering a dose of digital Epilim, and we had the Tower back on screen and working normally again within a few ticks.
Not a lot happened for the remainder of the Sprint worth frothing at the keyboard about, apart from the odd overtake. Márquez (Marc) claimed his eighth Sprint victory for 2025, Márquez (Bridesmaid-Álexia) took another second, while Bagnaia defended successfully in order to grab third.
Main Race:
As the group left the grid for the Warm-Up Lap, Chantra was left behind. His bike had apparently suffered a hiccup when he wanted to leave, but managed to sort itself out relatively quickly. Unfortunately, due to this hiccup, Chantra was later hit with a Double Long Lap Penalty for ‘Incorrect Grid Procedure’. Quartararo’s ‘Toothless’ helmet won the lid design contest in our (totally unbiased) opinion.
Bastianini was struck with a bout of déjà vu, when he tumbled from the race at Turn Fifteen after just one lap. The first three laps of the race contained about eighty-percent of the entertainment, what with Márquez, Bagnaia, and Márquez 2 all scrapping it out at the front of the field. We wished it would last all race long, but alas, it did not.
Some Mystery Yellows flashed across our screens momentarily during Lap Three. During the fourth lap, Zarco shot off the track at Turn Fifteen, landing mid-gravel with a dramatically dusty trail billowing away from him…… Ooh ooh! It’s Keanu!….. Sorry, where were we?…… Ah, yes. Ahem.
One Very Angry Viñales was seen trampling the gravel outside Turn Four on the ninth lap. Morbidelli had attempted a rather rapid dive past Viñales going into the corner, punting Maverick right off the track in the process. Judging by Viñales’ sign language, which we translated as such: Tapping finger against helmet (Head) = ‘What the actual Fanus you brainless genius?’ Punching fist horizontally in front of visor (eyes) while pointing at track = ‘Imma gonna moer you when I catch you behind the pits later.’ Finally, nodding affirmation = ‘That is a promise, you coño.’ We would suggest Frankie remain inside his garage, with his crew, for at least two days. As a small compensation, Morbidelli was handed a Long Lap Penalty for his punting prowess, which he duly turned into a Double Long Lapper by completely buggering it up the first time.
By the end of Lap Ten, Miller vanished into the pits. Safely removed from the drama, Márquez Senior cruised to victory, his ninety-third across all classes. Álex Márquez had to play bridesmaid for the thirteenth time this year, finishing in his customary second place. Di Giannantonio snatched third away from Bagnaia in the dying moments of the race. Binder finished…?!?!…. Oh, oh….. in a respectable ninth.
On his Cooldown Lap, Marc stopped in front of the packed Ducatisti stands, ran to the centre of the graveltrap, and forcefully planted his Goth Ducati flag in the litter. Something about Lorenzo, something-something.
~ Karr
