Ducati Desmo450 MX does the double in Italian Pro-Prestige MX1
It was a historic weekend for the Ducati Corse R&D – Factory MX Team over the weekend, with Alessandro Lupino winning the Italian MX1 round at Ponte a Egola scooping up one of the race wins, while Tony Cairoli claimed the first win of the weekend – on his Desmo 450 MX debut – alongside second overall for a Ducati 1-2 on the podium.
In the first heat, on extremely difficult track conditions due to the heavy rain that fell since the early hours of the morning, Lupino and Cairoli took the lead thanks to a perfect start, which saw them go into the first corner in first and second position.
The two riders led the race, alternating in the lead for seven laps, at the end of which, the stewards displayed the red flag due to the prohibitive weather conditions. The classification, frozen at the end of the previous lap, therefore, saw Cairoli as the winner ahead of Lupino.
The second heat saw a repeat of the lightning-fast start of the Ducati riders, with Lupino ahead of Cairoli. The race revolved around a battle between the two, and at the end, Alessandro Lupino narrowly prevailed, thus scoring the second victory of the day for the Ducati Off-Road team and the Desmo 450 MX.
Alessandro’s first and second place allowed him to conquer the overall ranking of the day, and also powered him to the top of the championship standings, with two races remaining. Lupino also won the Holeshot award.
The extreme conditions of the track during the first heat, and Tony’s participation in the Ponte a Egola race allowed Ducati engineers to collect more valuable data for the development of the Desmo450 MX, which will enter production in 2025.
The next round of the Italian Motocross Championship is scheduled for August 31 to September 1 on the Castiglione del Lago (PG) track. After a short holiday break in the next few days, Alessandro Lupino and Tony Cairoli will resume the testing program in the months of July and August.
