Francesco Bagnaia is the fastest Italian on two wheels. ‘Pecco’ dropped a couple of milestones when he aced the 2022 and 2023 MotoGP world championships. #63 was the first rider from his country to claim the crown since Valentino Rossi last held the position of MotoGP #1 in 2009. He was the first Italian to do so with a Ducati (the first all-Italian combo for fifty years) and the maiden winner to emerge from Rossi’s prolific VR46 Academy scheme. Bagnaia was one of the initial recruits after moving from his home in Turin to the east coastline and Pesaro in his late teens. His first Grand Prix season in 2013 was a tough baptism as he failed to score a point in Moto3 but success soon arrived and his grabbed his first podium finish in 2014 and maiden victory at Assen the year after. He won the 2018 Moto2 championship in his second attempt at the division and then barreled into MotoGP in 2019 as one of Ducati’s bright young hopes. His first premier class triumph came at Aragon in 2021 and was the first tip of the avalanche. He defeated Fabio Quartararo and overcame a 91-point deficit to be 2022 world champion and then resisted Jorge Martin the next season. He won 11 races in 2024 and came close to the triple. Famed for his strength under braking, precision and ability to deal with intense pressure in race scenarios: Bagnaia is a class act, and one of only five riders to claim multiple MotoGP honors this century. 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. His 2022 title was also the first Ducati rider World Championship in 15 years and the first for an Italian rider since Rossi in 2009.