MotoGP's summer break became a working holiday for the VR46 Riders Academy, as Valentino Rossi and Francesco Bagnaia were among the grand prix stars who hit the track at Misano during the Italian CIV championship's annual floodlit weekend.
The series has been idle since the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring on 12 July, with racing not due to resume until Silverstone on 7-9 August. In the gap, the academy riders used the Misano World Circuit - the group's main hub for on-bike training - to keep sharp, turning out on the Thursday before the CIV round on full-size machinery such as the Yamaha R1 and Ducati Panigale V4, as well as on minibikes and karts at the adjoining Misanino circuit.
The list of riders on track read like a roll call of Italian grand prix royalty: nine-time champion Rossi, three-time MotoGP title-winner Bagnaia, 2017 Moto2 world champion Franco Morbidelli, plus Luca Marini and Celestino Vietti.
The racing itself was no less eventful. Alessandro Delbianco took victory in Race 1, while wildcard Lukas Tulovic topped the podium in Race 2 after Delbianco was out before the end of the opening lap.
One notable absentee was Marco Bezzecchi, a four-time MotoGP race winner in 2026. The Aprilia rider is still recovering from the fractured collarbone he suffered in a Q2 crash at the Sachsenring, which ruled him out of round 11. Bezzecchi has said he intends to be back on the grid at Silverstone in early August, where he will arrive 22 points behind team-mate Jorge Martin, who has led the championship since Assen - the race where Bezzecchi crashed out while chasing Marc Marquez on the second lap.
With the second half of the season fast approaching, Misano gave the academy's stars a chance to shake off the rust - and a reminder that even in summer, the VR46 production line never really stops.
Sources
- Crash.net: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1101962/1/valentino-rossi-pecco-bagnaia-among-motogp-stars-ride-misano-race
