• Team: Ducati Lenovo (factory)
• Bike: GP21
• Wins: 4
• Podiums: 9
• Best Qualifying: 1st (x6)
• Fastest Lap: 4
• DNFs: 2
• Championship position: 2nd

One rider ཧled 34% of the racing laps in MotoGP this season - and it 𒊎wasn't world champion Fabio Quartararo, but runner-up Francesco Bagnaia.

Parachuted into the factory Ducati team after Andrea Dovizioso's departure, Bagnaia arrived with just a single podium to show for two injury-interru𒁃pted seasons at Pramac where, in his own modest words, he "only felt fast once or twice".

But he soon began to thrive in the factory environment, t♌hree podiums from the opening four rounds putting him just a single point behind Quartararo heading to his home Mugello round.

The Italian race was to be a pivotal moment for Bagnaia's title aspirations. Favourite for a debut victory, but with his head full of emotions after a minute of silence for Jason Dupasquier just before the start, Bagnaia feꦬll from the lead on only the second lap.

Bagnaia would be forced to wait four months to finally become a MotoGP race winner, courtesy of a thrilling victory over a lunging Marc Marquez at Aragon. It kicked off a peerless end-of-season run that saw four wins in six races, a fall while leading at Misano an𒈔d third place in COTA.

While the Misano crash - the consequence of Ducati's hard front-tyre choice in the cool conditions, catching🀅 out team-mate Jack Miller in identical fꦉashion - officially settled the championship, Bagnaia had also been the innocent victim of tyre performance issues at Silverstone (14th).

Nonetheless, the magnitude of the progress made b꧒y Bagnaia this season was remarkable.

A rider that was ranked just 15th and 16th in the world champion🐎ship during his previous (injury-interrupted) M🥂otoGP seasons, eclipsing all but Quartararo and finishing a massive 71-points clear of experienced Ducati team-mate Jack Miller.

But it was Bagnaia's incessant speed at all tracks from Assen onwards - he qualified on t꧒he front row throughout the last ten rounds, the springboard f💟or leading 150 laps compared with 99 for next best Quartararo - that will have his rivals worried for 2022.

It's for th🐻ose reasons that, regardless of whether♔ the Ducati really is the 'best bike', we feel Bagnaia thoroughly deserved his title runner-up status this season.