It's time to enjoy some fantastic statistics that have surfaced after Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) won the 2022 MotoGP™ World Championship. Have a read below:
- Aged 25 years and 296 days old, Francesco Bagnaia is the oldest rider to clinch his maiden MotoGP™ world title since the introduction of the class in 2002 behind Nicky Hayden in 2006 (25 years and 91 days old).
- Bagnaia became the first Italian rider to clinch a premier class world title since Valentino Rossi in 2009. Overall, he is the seventh different Italian rider to do so along with Giacomo Agostini (8 times), Valentino Rossi (7), Umberto Masetti (2), Libero Liberati (1), Marco Lucchinelli (1) and Franco Uncini (1).
- Hence, Bagnaia’s title is the 21st in the premier class for Italy and the 80th overall in Grand Prix racing.
- Bagnaia became the second Ducati rider to take the premier class world title along with Casey Stoner in 2007.
- In addition, he is also the first Italian rider on an Italian bike to do win the Championship since MotoGP™ Legend Giacomo Agostini in 1972 with MV Agusta.
- At the 2022 San Marino GP, Bagnaia took a fourth win in four successive GP races, becoming the first ever Ducati rider to do so in any classes of GP racing. Since the introduction of MotoGP™ in 2002, Bagnaia became the fourth different rider to take four (or more) wins in four (or more) successive races in the class along with Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez.
- With 11 premier class wins, all with Ducati, Bagnaia sits in third place on the list of Ducati riders with most wins in the class behind Casey Stoner (23 wins) and Andrea Dovizioso (14).
- With 20 premier class podiums so far, Bagnaia is the fifth Ducati rider with most podiums in the class, behind Jack Miller (21 podiums). Casey Stoner leads the way with 42 podiums.
- This season Bagnaia has stood on the MotoGP™ podium more than any other rider (10 times), including seven wins. Only two Ducati riders have scored seven (or more) wins in a single season: Casey Stoner (10 in 2007) and Bagnaia (2022).
- After the German GP, Bagnaia was sixth in the Championship, 91 points off the leader Fabio Quartararo, meaning this is the best point recovery for the title since the introduction of the point scoring system in 1993.
- Since 2001, there have been only two occasions on which the rider who clinched the title at the end of the year didn’t finish within the top five in the opening race of season: Joan Mir (2020) and Francesco Bagnaia (2022); they both crashed out.
- In addition, Bagnaia became the first rider to clinch the premier class title with five DNFs throughout the season.
- Bagnaia is only the second rider to clinch the premier class world title having previously clinched the Moto2™ title along with Marc Marquez.