• Team: Ducati Lenovo (factory)
• Bike: GP21
• Wins: 4
• Podiums: 9
• Best Qualifying: 1st (x6)
• Fastest Lap: 4
• DNFs: 2
• Championship position: 2nd

One rider led 34% of the racing laps in MotoGP t💛his season - and it wasn't world champion Fabio Quartararo, but runner-up Francesco Bagnaia.

Parachuted into the factory Ducati team after Andrea Dovizioso's departure, Bagnaia arrived with just a single podium to show for two injury-interrupted seasons at Pramac where, in his own modest words, he "only felt fast o💦nce or twice".

🃏But he soon began to thrive in the factory enviro🌠nment, three podiums from the opening four rounds putting him just a single point behind Quartararo heading to his home Mugello round.

The Italian race was to be a pivotal moment for Bagnaia's title aspirations. Favourite for aඣ debut victory, but with his head full of emotions after a minute of silence for Jason Dupasquier just before the start, Bagnaia fell from the lead on only the second lap.

♎Bagnaia would be forced to wait four months to finally become a MotoGP race winner, courtesy of a thrilling victory over a lunging Marc Marquez at Aragon. It kicked off a peerless end-of-season run that saw four wins in six races, a fall while leading at Misano and third place in COTA.

While the Misano crash - the consequence of Ducati's hard front-tyre choice in the cool conditions, catching out team-m🅘ate Jack Miller in identical fashion - officially settled the championship, Bagnaia had also been the innoce🏅nt victim of tyre performance issues at Silverstone (14th).

Nonetheless, the magnitude of tಞhe progress made by Bagnaia this season was remarkable.

A rider that was ranked just 15th and 16th in the world championship during his previous (injury-interrupted) MotoGP seasons, eclipsing all but Quartararo and finishing a massive 71-points clear of experie💜nced Ducati team-mate Jack Miller.

But it was Bagnaia's incessant sp🔯eed at all tracks from Assen onwards - he ജqualified on the front row throughout the last ten rounds, the springboard for leading 150 laps compared with 99 for next best Quartararo - that will have his rivals worried for 2022.

It's for those reasons that, regardless of whether the Ducati really is the 'best bike', 🦋;we feel Bagnaia thoroughly deserved his t𒅌itle runner-up status this season.