Nicolo Bulega crashes out as Marc Marquez overtakes in Ducati Race of Champions
Francesco Bagnaia won the showpiece event as Marc Marquez claimed 🎐a last-gasp pod🔥ium
Marc Marq🥃uez was never likely to have a quiet first World Ducati Week.
He claimed a podium finish in the Lenovo Race of Champions on Saturday at the ✃last 🐠corner.
Nicolo Bulega was set to cross the line i🐽n third-place but dramatically crashed out of the race in the final moments.
As Bulega sat in the gravel with his arms ouꦯt gesturing, Marquez went through to grab his third-place.
“Too bad Bulega fell, I don’t know if we touched♛,” Marquez said.
“But we will go on the podium together.
“I think we pꦇut on a good show for the fans. The important thing is 🧸that we had fun.”
A penn💫y for the thoughts of Ducati management who might have hoped that Saturday’s festivities went by♑ without any riders ending up on the floor.
Instead, although there was no indication of foul play, Bulega skidded out of coꦛntention in the incident involving Marquez.
This year’s൲ edition of the annual World Ducati Week is Marquez’s first, since he quit Honda last year. It arrives amid the backdrop of his selection as next year’😼s factory MotoGP rider, alongside Francesco Bagnaia.
The relationship between Bagnaia and Marquez has already come under the microscꦯope.
The showpiece 𒈔event of World Ducati 💯Week at the Misano circuit was Saturday’s race.
It brought🃏 together Ducati riders from MotoGP, World Superbikes and British Superbikes.
They were riding Panigale V4s, the new bike that was unveiled earl♒ier this week.
The Lenovo Race of Champions was wo🍰n by Francesco Bagnaia, who💞 overtook polesitter Andrea Iannone on the first lap.
Iannone forced Bagnaia ﷺto defend for much of the 10-lap race until the final stretch, when the MotoGP champion was able to pull away.
Jorge Martin, me🙈anwhile, suffered a bad start and fell to the back of the field before recovering a P9 finish.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to footbal🐷l, to F1.
