Bagnaia beats Vinales for MotoGP Virtual Race II win

Francesco Bagnaia has seen off Maverick Vinales to claim victory in the second MotoGP Virtual Race with former winner Alex Marquez in third place.

The second MotoGP Esports race of the season, run at Austria’s Red Bull Ring over 10 laps on the MotoGP19 video game, saw a manic first corner with at least four riders crashing as pole-sitter Bagnaia steered clear of danger to slot in behind a fast start from Takaaki Nakagami who took an early lead.

But the Pramac Ducati rider made light work of overtaking Nakagami for the lead at Turn 4, with Vinales following the Italian rider through to take second place at Turn 5.

With Nakagami tangling with both Marquez brothers in separate incidents, it released Bagnaia and Vinales in a fight for the victory.

The Monster Energy Yamaha rider dived up the inside of Bagnaia on Lap 5 at the Turn 3 hairpin but threw away his lead two laps later when he crashed on his own at Turn 4.

With Bagnaia regaining the lead, Vinales put in an impressive late race attack to close the gap, aided by Bagnaia going wide at the first corner at the start of Lap 8, which set up a final-lap showdown between the pair.

Vinales dived up the inside under braking at Turn 4 only to see Bagnaia return the favour one corner later, with the Pramac rider taking to the grass to regain the lead, and pulled out a big enough gap to finish in first place by 0.074s before a ‘race direction review’ of the final lap overtakes.

With no action taken on the final lap moves, it gave victory to Bagnaia ahead of Yamaha’s Vinales with Mugello MotoGP Virtual Race winner Marquez taking third place after beating his brother and Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez.

Fabio Quartararo could only manage fifth place for Petronas Yamaha after crashing out on numerous occasions early in the race, while Danilo Petrucci held on to sixth place after Valentino Rossi crashed at the final corner while trying to overtake the Ducati rider.

With Rossi in seventh for Yamaha, Nakagami’s eventful race ended with eighth place on his Esports debut for LCR Honda Idemitsu ahead of Ducati’s Michele Pirro and Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat.

The MotoGP Virtual Race series has been set up in the absence of actual racing during the ongoing postponements to the 2020 MotoGP season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Provisionally the MotoGP season will resume at Sachsenring on June 21, but it remains subject to race calendar reshuffles by organisers looking to salvage the 2020 season.

MotoGP Virtual Race II results:

1. Francesco Bagnaia, Pramac Ducati, 13m 47.091s

2. Maverick Vinales, Monster Energy Yamaha, +0.074s

3. Alex Marquez, Repsol Honda, +9.762s

4. Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda, +12.572s

5. Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha, +35.418s

6. Danilo Petrucci, Ducati, NC

7. Valentino Rossi, Monster Energy Yamaha, NC

8. Takaaki Nakagami, LCR Honda Idemitsu, NC

9. Michele Pirro, Ducait, NC

10. Tito Rabat, Avintia Ducati, NC