"STABLE LIKE F1′ – DUCATI MOTOGP RIVALS’ BELATED REALITY CHECK"

With a bike that wasn’t flawed out of the gates like its 2022 predecessor, there was concern coming out of the pre-season about Ducati making a total whitewash of the 2023 MotoGP campaign.

But while the GP23 had proven a big hit, neither it nor the year-old version competing alongside it had proven out of reach. Ducati has won plenty of races, been quickest more often than not, and was obviously the nailed-on constructors’ champion already – but it wasn’t yet quite the Death Star.

It was maybe that slightly raggedy and exposed Death Star from Return of the Jedi – still a “fully armed and operational battle station”, but not quite the fully assembled variant from a New Hope.

But at Mugello, led by Pecco Bagnaia, it snapped the opposition in half. It was 1-2-3-4-5 in the sprint, which maybe should’ve been a top-six lockout if not for Alex Marquez falling off in lap-one contact, and 1-2-3-4 in the main race, which again maybe should’ve been a top-six lockout if not for another Marquez exit and a confusing drop-off for Marco Bezzecchi.

And that was even without a fully-fit Enea Bastianini.

In hindsight, it’s easy to point at the track and say ‘well, there’s your answer’. Ducati is routinely great at Mugello, especially now that the bike is not just lighting fast on the straights but perfectly adept in the corners and direction changes. It likely has warehouses of data from Mugello. And so much of its line-up are Italians who know the track like the backs of their hands.

But it hadn’t even had a 1-2 at Mugello since 2018. Fabio Quartararo rode a masterpiece on his Yamaha M1 to finish a not-too-distant second to Bagnaia last year, after winning in 2021. And Marc Marquez had a very real chance to steal a win for Honda in 2019."

This time? Not a chance. For Yamaha and Honda, obviously – these are not the Yamaha and Honda you’re looking for. But KTM and Aprilia both came into the weekend expecting to go quite well, and both had to leave with a shrug of the shoulders.

“I jumped behind them at the start and I was trying to go with them, they looked like they had a little bit in the pocket,” said KTM’s Brad Binder, who salvaged a fifth place as the winner of the non-Ducati class on Sunday.

“Each race this year I’ve always felt like I can go with the guys and and be in my comfort zone. Whereas here I’ve really had to try and push it – and I wasn’t going with them either. It was a bit more tough."