Francesco Bagnaia

Followed by a crash at Barcelona, Bagnaia secured his first Grand Prix win at the historic Assen circuit, in what was his 59th Moto3 race, and the first win for Mahindra, too.

He had four podiums in the first eight races of the season, and found himself fighting for the title.

After two average races and a crash at Brno, Bagnaia got his first pole position in the rain-affected Silverstone and finished second behind Brad Binder in a thrilling race.

Bagnaia won his second race of the season at Sepang, winning the race comfortably with a big gap after Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Lorenzo Dalla Porta all crashed out in the same corner during the beginning of the race, which was filled with multiple crashes.

Francesco Bagnaia (born 14 January 1997) is an Italian Grand Prix motorcycle racer competing in MotoGP for the Ducati Lenovo Team.

He is the and MotoGP World Riders' Champion.

In the next race at Mugello Bagnaia finished 4th, missing the podium by 0.003 seconds.

He was on his way to another podium finish at Silverstone but crashed with 2 laps remaining, fighting with Niccolò Antonelli for the 3rd place.

Despite improving his championship position by two places, and gaining 26 more points than the previous year on a new bike for the third straight season, this time a Mahindra, it was still an up and down year for him.

Bagnaia only finished in the top 10 during five races.

He also missed points in seven races, unclassified in five of those.

At his home race in Italy Bagnaia secured another 3rd position, beating Niccolò Antonelli by 0.006 seconds.

He finished 2nd in the next race as well at Le Mans after having qualified in 2nd place, missing pole position to Thomas Lüthi by just 0.026 seconds.

It was also the first for a Ducati rider in 15 years and the first for an Italian rider since Rossi himself in 2009.

Bagnaia was born in Turin, Italy, and rode Minimoto bikes from a young age, winning the European MiniGP championship in 2009.

He made his pre-GP 125 Mediterranean championship debut with Monlau Competición team in 2010 and finished the season as runner-up.

After failing to score points in his rookie season, Bagnaia made clear improvements, finishing in the top 10 five times during the first 7 races, with a 4th-place finish at Le Mans as his best result, where he also set the fastest lap of the race.

Bagnaia missed the races at Assen and Sachsenring due to injury.

After scoring 42 points in the first 7 races of the campaign Bagnaia slumped badly during the second part of the season, only finishing in the points twice of the last 9 races, clearly affected by his injury.

In 2011 he took part in the Spanish Championships in the 125cc category, winning a race, and finishing third in the final standings.

In the 2012 CEV Moto3 season he rode a Honda NSF250R and once again finished 3rd in the championship behind Álex Márquez and Luca Amato, with a race win and two 2nd places in seven races.

Bagnaia joined the VR46 Riders Academy, and remains a member.

Bagnaia made his Grand Prix debut in the 2013 Moto3 World Championship, with Team Italia FMI riding a Honda alongside his teammate Romano Fenati.

The season was a disappointing year for Bagnaia as he did not manage to get a single point in the 17 races he participated in.

In 2014, Bagnaia switched teams to join the newly formed Sky Racing Team by VR46, riding a KTM with Romano Fenati again.

He finished the year 14th place in the championship standings, with 76 points.

He finished the season with 145 points to place 4th in the Moto3 Championship with a total of 2 wins and 6 podiums.

Bagnaia would have had an opportunity to finish 2nd in the World Championship behind Brad Binder, but was taken out in both Phillip Island and Valencia by Gabriel Rodrigo.

Rodrigo pushed out Fabio Di Giannantonio in Australia who went down and collected Bagnaia with him in that crash.

In Valencia, Rodrigo made a highside crash on the first lap approaching the last corner which Bagnaia was unable to avoid.

After 4 seasons in the Moto3 category, Bagnaia moved up to Moto2 racing for Sky Racing Team VR46, where he last rode in 2014.

In 2015, Bagnaia made another team and bike change, this time joining Aspar Team on a Mahindra, with new teammates being Juanfran Guevara and Jorge Martín.

In the fifth race of the season in France, Bagnaia got his first podium at Le Mans, finishing the race in 3rd place behind Romano Fenati and Enea Bastianini.

His best race was a 16th-place finish at Sepang.

He finished the season in 16th position with 50 points.

In 2016, Bagnaia started the season with a podium finish at Losail and another podium finish at Jerez, finishing 3rd on both occasions.

For the 2017 Moto2 World Championship, he would have Stefano Manzi as his teammate.

In just his fourth ever Moto2 race at Jerez Bagnaia finished 2nd.

Bagnaia was the 2018 Moto2 World Champion.

He is the first and only rider from Valentino Rossi's VR46 Riders Academy to win a world title in the premier class.