(Motorsport news) Francesco Bagnaia won his second consecutive MotoGP victory at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday after surviving a late charge from World Championship leader Fabio Quartararo.

The Italian led the race by almost 2.7 seconds at one point until Quartararo gave a late scare and reduced the gap by two tenths of a second. Quartararo struggled to keep pace with the Ducati’s of Bagnaia and Jack Miller at the beginning of the race, but soon found his form and overtook the Australian with 14 laps to go to finish in second place.

Starting from the 12th position on the grid, Enea Bastianini of Avintia Ducati also secured his debut podium finish while Repsol’s Marc Marquez finished fourth. Ducati’s Jack Miller finished in a disappointing fifth position while former world champion Valentino Rossi finished 17th for Petronas Yamaha while reigning world champion Joan Mir finished sixth on his Suzuki.

Despite back to back victories for Francesco Bagnaia, the Italian still trails Quartararo by 48 points with four rounds to go. The Frenchman said, “There were a few moments where I closed the gap, but Pecco (Bagnaia) was on another level today… but we did the job today because we still have a good lead in the championship.”

After the race, Bagnaia spoke about his back to back race wins, “I knew that with the soft rear tyre, I was struggling a bit and I tried to push in the first few laps to open the gap. The last 10 laps when Fabio was recovering were very difficult… he was a bit better in the last part but we were incredible today.

Two victories in a row is incredible for me. I was struggling to win my first race… there was something missing. Now I'm very happy."

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