Francesco Bagnaia has won the Italian MotoGP while Ducati Lenovo team-mate Jack Miller picked up just a single championship point.

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo was a gallant second on a Monster Energy Yamaha hardly suited to Mugello’s long main straight and Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro finished third, while Gresini Ducati rider Enea Bastianini crashed out.

For the works Ducati riders, it was a somewhat similar story early on with Bagnaia shuffled back to ninth on the opening lap while Miller dropped from 12th on the grid to 22nd after being forced onto the grass on the run to the first corner.

Mooney VR46 Ducati riders Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi quickly moved past pole-sitter Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and into the top two, before Bezzecchi slipstreamed past his team-mate at the start of Lap 2.

Bagnaia quickly set about making up ground and was second when he got by Quartararo and Marini in one fell swoop as they sped towards San Donato on Lap 5.

He pulled off much the same move on Bezzecchi four laps later, and Quartararo was second when he passed #72 on Lap 11 at Scarperia.

‘Pecco’ stretched his lead to a full second on Lap 12 and it was still that much on Lap 17, before Quartararo scrounged back a few tenths.

Bagnaia responded and was 1.1s up at the start of the final lap, before taking the chequered flag 0.6s to the good.

Behind Quartararo, who had to be supreme under brakes at San Donato to fend off repeated Ducati attacks, Aleix Espargaro took a fourth consecutive third placing after he made steady progress from as low as sixth in the order.

As such, he keeps touch with ‘El Diablo’ in the riders’ championship, now eight points back, while Bagnaia is up fourth at 41 points in arrears of the leader.

Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati) took fourth with a final-lap pass of Bezzecchi, while Marini ended up sixth, from Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda), Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM), and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda).

Miller got back up to 15th on Lap 8, lost a spot to Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) on Lap 13, then got one back when Bastianini crashed out of sixth spot on Lap 14.

Bastianini is still third in the championship, although now more than a full race behind Quartararo, while Miller has slipped to eighth.

Tech3 KTM’s Remy Gardner remains 23rd in the standings after finishing 19th at Mugello, two positions up on team-mate Raul Fernandez.

Round 9 is the Catalan MotoGP at Barcelona-Catalunya on June 3-5.

Race results: Italian MotoGP

Race winner: 23 laps

Riders’ championship