Moto GP, Marquez wins at Mugello too. Bagnaia still can't find himself

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For the home Grand Prix, at Mugello, Ducati had chosen a particular livery, dedicated to the Italian Renaissance. But in the end, those who were supposed to be truly reborn didn't succeed. While Marc Marquez continues to travel on another planet, defeating even ancient ghosts like the Tuscan track, Pecco Bagnaia continues not to find himself again . "I gave it my all, I did my best, but in the end I found myself having to look at the others", he says after a race in which he failed to get on the podium, despite having shown in the first laps that he hadn't lost his magic touch and that he was able to fight on equal terms with that monster Marquez. But then, as the laps went by, Pecco was no longer able to be Bagnaia and transformed, as he says with all the sadness in the world, into a shrimp . "I've always been the one to take the bike around, but this year it's taking me... If I brake sideways I can't stop, if I brake straight on the front locks up", he says.

By now, 110 points behind Marquez after 9 races, he has the face of someone who no longer believes in it. This year's Ducati is not and will never be his bike. He manages to bring out his pride, to give a handful of laps as a king, but then he starts to gloomy again and not always (as happened to him at Mugello) manages to stay on the podium. Having to give up on his home track was a bad blow and there is no point in listening to those who try to console him by telling him that it was nice to see him fight in the first laps. "There is no way out", says Pecco with the frankness that has always distinguished him. "Failing at Mugello would be a tragedy", he said on the eve. It was not a tragedy because he knew how to react, but instead of a Renaissance there was the final surrender. Only Marquez was reborn at Mugello. “Now we have to try to give Pecco a bike that allows him to be competitive from the first to the last lap,” said Claudio Domenicali, the CEO who helped build the unbeatable Ducati of recent years with Gigi Dall'Igna.

Even if Marc Marquez manages to take pole, sprint race and race at Mugello, a track where he hasn't won in 11 years, there's little to say. The World Championship is now sealed. Marquez is unbeatable , sometimes he'll slip again, sometimes his brother might beat him again, but it's hard to see how he can lose this championship. The best rider on the best bike leads to the world championship, there's no point beating around the bush. However, there's no point in Ducati getting angry and hearing a few too many boos coming from the stands. They can't be surprised if the fans in Italy would have preferred to bet everything on Pecco, who had won three World Championships, they can't hope that Marquez will suddenly become popular with those who will never digest what he did with Valentino in the past. They wanted to win big by bringing home the best rider in the world, but they can't be surprised if not everyone is happy with how Pecco was used and thrown away. The destruction of the Bagnaia myth (three world championships are still something big) is almost complete.

But on the other hand, if it hurts humanly to see a rider like Pecco disappear from the podium, if you look at the world championship from a corporate point of view, the Marquez operation was perfect because at this point the World Championship is practically won (he is 40 years older than his brother) and in any case placing four bikes in the first four places on the home track is not bad. Marc was also smart to celebrate the victory with a Ducati flag and not with his own. He wanted to give a dedication to the Italian public. He is trying to win over even those fans who have not tolerated him since 2005. It will be more difficult than winning the World Championship. But even the most ardent of the fans who boo him will have to recognize his greatness. Marc is a rider who has managed to be reborn after the physical problems that almost led him to retire, a rider who has put himself back in the game by choosing to abandon Honda for a satellite team like Gresini's Ducati last year and then join the official team. The Ducati flag he celebrated with at Mugello is his peace pipe.

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