History has been made at Ducati, as the Bologna bullets sealed yet another Constructors’ Championship at the Aragon Grand Prix. It is the Borgo Panigale’s fourth such title in the premier class, and helps complete a hat-trick of success.
Having only claimed the constructors crown once before, back in 2007, it is now three in a row as they once again reaffirmed their status as the dominant manufacturer in MotoGP™, while it is the first step on their journey to the coveted triple crown.
Enea Bastianini’s (Gresini Racing MotoGP™) sensational MotorLand victory saw the Italian brand collect the maximum 25 points for a tenth time this season, handing them an unassailable lead atop the standings. Their current points tally sits at 346, 129 more than their nearest rival Aprilia with just 125 points left up for grabs.
The Noale factory moved into second place courtesy of Aleix Espargaro’s return to the podium, while Yamaha sit third on 213 points. The Iwata factory’s hopes of staying in the fight were undone by Fabio Quartararo’s (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) early exit, with Cal Crutchlow (WithU Yamaha RNF Racing Team) picking up just two points for the Japanese marque. Incidentally, that was the first time someone outside of the reigning World Champion contributed to Yamaha’s constructor’s points total in the current campaign.
After a couple of early season struggles, Ducati once again have plenty to celebrate as their GP22 and GP21s run riot on circuit, with at least one bike on the podium in every race so far this season. Bastianini opened up the season with victory at Qatar and has claimed three more in Austin, Le Mans and Aragon since. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) has six 2022 wins to his name, coming in Jerez, Mugello, Assen, Silverstone, Austria and Misano. Pramac duo Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin have played their part too with five podiums between them, with the Frenchman claiming one more than his younger teammate. Those came in Indonesia, Argentina, Portugal, Catalunya and Germany, with all contributing to the overall points tally.
It has been an incredible year for the Italian outfit, and General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna spoke of his delight in claiming another title post-race on Sunday.
"We are very happy to win our third Constructors' title in a row, the fourth in Ducati's MotoGP history. It was a result we expected, given the results of our riders this year with Bagnaia's six wins and Bastianini's four victories. I want to thank all our riders and the Ducati Corse staff who have worked so hard to achieve this success. Now we can focus exclusively on the riders' title: we are 10 points behind the leader and there are five races to go so it's all open."
Ducati Corse Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti also spoke of his pleasure in clinching the hat-trick of titles with time to spare, meaning that they can now focus on claiming the Teams and Riders’ Championships.
The Aragon GP has indeed proven pivotal in Ducati’s hopes of securing the triple crown, as Ducati Lenovo Team lead Aprilia by 37 points in the teams title in what is pretty much a straight shootout between the two, while Bagnaia has closed the gap to Quartararo to just 10 points heading into Motegi.
Ducati will continue to chase their holy grail and hope that Pecco can keep up his impressive run of form, and deliver just a second Riders’ Championship to the Bologna bullets, and a first since Casey Stoner did it way back in 2007. All eyes are now on Motegi, with the Japanese GP up next in what is sure to be a thrilling event.