Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia accomplished the improbable on Sunday, November 6, 2022. Five months prior, the Italian trailed defending MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo by 91 points in the Rider’s Champions standings after crashing out of the German Grand Prix. Pecco didn’t listen to the naysayers, though. He kept his nose to the grindstone and closed the gap week after week.
All that tenacity paid off at the season finale in Valencia, Spain, where Bagnaia secured the 2022 MotoGP title by a slim 13-point margin. The championship marked the VR 46 Academy rider’s first Premier class crown and just Ducati’s second Rider’s title in 15 years. To celebrate the occasion, the Bologna firm released a 25-minute documentary chronicling the final three rounds of the 2022 MotoGP season.
Titled Nuvola Rossa: Bagnaia and Ducati's Perfect Comb1nation, the short film gives race fans and Ducatisti a behind-the-scenes view of the tensest moments of the Australian, Malaysian, and Valencia Grands Prix. However, the drama followed the Factory team throughout the 2022 season.
Flashback to the opening round, the Qatar Grand Prix. While battling for a mid-pack position, Pecco lost the front of his Desmosedici GP 22 into the Losail International Circuit’s turn one. Crashing would become a theme for number 63, with DNFs following at the French, Catalan, and German GPs. They weren’t limited to the circuit either.
Over MotoGP’s Summer Break, Pecco was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing his in Ibiza, Spain. Somehow, the team and rider put the incident squarely behind them following the five-week holiday.
The Ducati rider promptly went on a winning streak, taking the first three races of the season’s second half. Another crash at the Japanese GP only delayed the inevitable. Just two rounds later, at the Australian Grand Prix, Pecco snatched the title lead from Quartararo and never looked back.
Even with a 91-point deficit and five DNFs to his name, Bagnaia never threw in the towel. That’s something that he and Ducati deserve to celebrate until the drama starts all over again with the 2023 MotoGP season opener.
