73 Facts About Francesco Bagnaia

Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia was born on 14 January 1997 and is an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer competing in MotoGP for the Ducati Lenovo Team.

Francesco Bagnaia is the current MotoGP World Champion and a previous Moto2 World Champion.

Francesco Bagnaia is the first rider from the VR46 academy to win a world title in the premier class.

Francesco Bagnaia made his pre-GP 125 Mediterranean championship debut with Monlau Competicion team in 2010 and finished 2nd in the championship.

Francesco Bagnaia was recruited to be a member of the VR46 riders academy, and is still part of the academy to this day.

Francesco Bagnaia made his Grand Prix debut in the 2013 Moto3 World Championship, with Team Italia FMI riding a Honda alongside his teammate Romano Fenati.

Francesco Bagnaia's best race was a 16th-place finish at Sepang.

In 2014, Francesco Bagnaia switched teams to join the newly formed Sky Racing Team by VR46, riding a KTM with Romano Fenati again.

Francesco Bagnaia missed the races at Assen and Sachsenring due to injury.

Francesco Bagnaia finished the season in 16th position with 50 points.

In 2015, Francesco Bagnaia made another team and bike change, this time joining Aspar Team on a Mahindra, with new teammates being Juanfran Guevara and Jorge Martin.

Francesco Bagnaia was on his way to another podium finish at Silverstone but crashed with 2 laps remaining, fighting with Niccolo Antonelli for the 3rd place.

Francesco Bagnaia only finished in the top 10 during five races.

Francesco Bagnaia missed points in seven races, unclassified in five of those.

Francesco Bagnaia finished the year 14th place in the championship standings, with 76 points.

In 2016, Francesco Bagnaia started the season with a podium finish at Losail and another podium finish at Jerez, finishing 3rd on both occasions.

At his home race in Italy Francesco Bagnaia secured another 3rd position, beating Niccolo Antonelli by 0.006 seconds.

Francesco Bagnaia had four podiums in the first eight races of the season, and found himself fighting for the title.

Francesco Bagnaia won his second race of the season at Sepang, winning the race comfortably with a big gap after Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Lorenzo Dalla Porta all crashed out in the same corner during the beginning of the race, which was filled with multiple crashes.

Francesco Bagnaia finished the season with 145 points to place 4th in the Moto3 Championship with a total of 2 wins and 6 podiums.

Francesco Bagnaia would have had an opportunity to finish 2nd in the World Championship behind Brad Binder, but was taken out in both Phillip Island and Valencia by Gabriel Rodrigo.

In Valencia Rodrigo made a highside crash on the first lap approaching the last corner, Francesco Bagnaia was unable to avoid.

Francesco Bagnaia finished 2nd in the next race as well at Le Mans after having qualified in 2nd place, missing pole position to Thomas Luthi by just 0.026 seconds.

Francesco Bagnaia took a third podium at Sachsenring, finishing 3rd behind Franco Morbidelli and Miguel Oliveira.

At Misano Francesco Bagnaia originally finished the race 4th behind Dominique Aegerter, Thomas Luthi and Hafizh Syahrin; however, Aegerter was later disqualified, promoting him to 3rd of his fourth podium of the season.

Francesco Bagnaia was crowned Moto2 Rookie of the year after the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, and finished his rookie season with 174 points to place 5th in the championship standings, scoring points in 16 of the 18 races.

Francesco Bagnaia opened the season with a win in Qatar, having led the race from start to finish.

Francesco Bagnaia took a second win in Austin after a hard fight with Alex Marquez winning the race with a gap of 2.4 seconds and setting the fastest lap of the race.

At Jerez Francesco Bagnaia finished 3rd behind Lorenzo Baldassarri and Miguel Oliveira holding his starting grid position.

Francesco Bagnaia took his first pole position in Moto2 at Le Mans, and like the race in Qatar he led from start to finish.

Francesco Bagnaia took a 4th win at Assen, starting the race from Pole Position and leading the entire race.

At Brno Francesco Bagnaia finished third and lost the championship lead to Oliveira, but quickly retook the championship lead at Austria, winning his 5th race of the season.

Francesco Bagnaia won his sixth race of the season at Misano from pole position.

Francesco Bagnaia took a 5th straight podium at Buriram, winning the race with his teammate Luca Marini in second place.

Francesco Bagnaia took his 8th win of the season at Motegi after Fabio Quartararo, who initially won the race, was disqualified due to low tyre pressure.

Francesco Bagnaia finished every single Moto2 race he participated in, 36 in total.

Francesco Bagnaia scored points in 34 of them and was on a 30-race point scoring streak, starting from Barcelona in 2017.

Francesco Bagnaia was previously offered a ride in MotoGP in 2018 by Pramac after his stellar rookie season in 2017, where he took four podiums and finished 5th in the championship behind Franco Morbidelli, Thomas Luthi, Miguel Oliveira and Alex Marquez, but Bagnaia decided to stay, with an opportunity to take the championship title.

Francesco Bagnaia replaced fellow Italian rider Danilo Petrucci, who went to the Factory Ducati Team, replacing three-time MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, who took the seat vacated at Repsol Honda Team by Dani Pedrosa after he decided to retire after 13 seasons in MotoGP, becoming an official test rider for KTM.

Francesco Bagnaia finished 9th in Austin getting positions after Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow crashed out from the race in separate accidents, and both Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir were penalised with ride through penalties for jumping the start.

At Le Mans where Francesco Bagnaia won the Moto2 race in 2018, he crashed out on the sixth lap after an incident with Maverick Vinales.

Francesco Bagnaia topped the second Free Practice time sheets on his way to qualify 8th on the grid.

At Phillip Island Francesco Bagnaia finished the race in 4th place, his best result of the season, missing the podium by just 0.055 seconds to his Ducati teammate Jack Miller.

Francesco Bagnaia finished his rookie season in the premier class with 54 points, placing him 15th in the championship standings.

Francesco Bagnaia missed the final race at Valencia due to injury.

Francesco Bagnaia returned for his home race at Misano, where he took his first podium of his MotoGP career, with a second-place finish behind Franco Morbidelli, fellow VR46 Academy member.

Francesco Bagnaia fell into a bit of a slump after his first podium however, only scoring 8 points in the last six races, eventually finishing the season down in 16th place, with 47 points to his name.

For 2021, Francesco Bagnaia moved up to the factory Ducati team, along with former teammate Jack Miller.

Francesco Bagnaia started the season well, qualifying for pole position ahead of teammate Miller and the factory Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales, at the season opener in Losail.

At Portimao Francesco Bagnaia initially took Pole position during Qualifying; however, his lap time was disallowed due to Miguel Oliveira's crash and yellow flag, which meant Francesco Bagnaia started the race from 11th.

Francesco Bagnaia finished 2nd the following race weekend in Jerez too, making it three podiums from four races.

Francesco Bagnaia took his maiden premier class win at Aragon, where he set the all time track record in qualifying, and led the entire race starting from pole, successfully defending seven overtakes by Marc Marquez during the final stages of the race.

Francesco Bagnaia managed to repeat this achievement the following weekend in Rimini; he broke the lap record to take pole and led the entire race to take his second career victory in MotoGP.

Francesco Bagnaia secured his third consecutive pole position in Austin, and finished the race in third, cutting the championship lead of Fabio Quartararo to 52 points, with three races remaining.

In Misano, Francesco Bagnaia would continue his incredible hot streak, getting pole position, setting the fastest lap of the race, before he crashed out of the lead with 5 laps to go, securing the title for Fabio Quartararo.

Francesco Bagnaia won the race in Portimao, as well as the season closer in Valencia, finishing second in the championship, with 252 points, 26 points behind World Champion Fabio Quartararo.

Francesco Bagnaia crashed out of 8th place taking the polesitter and fellow Ducati rider, Jorge Martin out at the opening race at Losail in Qatar.

At the second round of the season, at a wet Mandalika circuit, Francesco Bagnaia took home a disappointing 15th place, collecting only one point in the opening two races of the season.

Two fifth places at COTA and the Argentinian Grand Prix and an eighth place in Portimao were followed up until Jerez, a track where Francesco Bagnaia has had success earlier in his career.

Francesco Bagnaia dominated the weekend, taking a record-breaking pole position and then leading from start to finish, picking up the second grand slam of his career.

At Le Mans, Francesco Bagnaia dominated initially, leading the majority of the race; however, he was eventually caught up by Enea Bastianini who won the race, and Francesco Bagnaia crashed out of with seven laps to go.

The next race at Mugello Francesco Bagnaia had more of a mediocre start, Qualifying in 5th spot he eventually caught up and passed Marco Bezzecchi to the lead the remainder of the race for his 2nd win of the season.

In Catalunya, Francesco Bagnaia was running 3rd and was one of the favourites to take the victory but was taken out alongside Alex Rins by Takaaki Nakagami heading into the first corner, the race was won by Fabio Quartararo.

Francesco Bagnaia was now at a 91-point deficit to Quartararo, the championship leader, and stood in 6th place in championship at the exact halfway point of the season.

Francesco Bagnaia went on to win the next 4 races in Assen, Silverstone, Red Bull Ring and Misano.

Francesco Bagnaia made history as the first Ducati rider and only the 4th rider in the MotoGP era to do so.

Francesco Bagnaia had gained 61 points on Fabio Quartararo in 4 races collecting a maximum of 100 points.

At Aragon Francesco Bagnaia aimed for a fifth win in a row but had to settle for second to Enea Bastianini with a margin of just 0.042 seconds, being overtaken on the final lap.

At the Japanese Grand Prix, while running in 9th position just behind Quartararo, Francesco Bagnaia crashed out of the race on the final lap, allowing Quartararo, who finished the race in 8th place, to increase his lead in the championship over Francesco Bagnaia to 18 points with 4 races to go in the season.

Francesco Bagnaia picked up the 7th victory of his season after a poor qualifying session but Quartararo finishing in 3rd meant that the title would go down to the final round.

Francesco Bagnaia will continue with Ducati for 2023 and 2024 alongside a new teammate, Enea Bastianini who replaces Jack Miller.

On 5 July 2022, Francesco Bagnaia was involved in a DUI crash in the early morning on the Spanish island of Ibiza.

Francesco Bagnaia stated he was celebrating a race win at Assen, and was normally a very light drinker.