A dream couple
Italy, with its drivers, is the master of world motorsport. The twin triumphs of Kimi Antonelli And Marco Bezzecchi yesterday in F1 and MotoGP they wrote a page of history that our country has not experienced since 2003but our ‘black knights’ have gone even further: an Italian rider is in fact leader of the world championship ranking in both F1 and MotoGP at the same time and this is truly one of those circumstances that our country has experienced on very few occasions, which have their roots back in time. The last time such a situation occurred was in fact 1952a year of grace for Italian motorsport.
In that season Alberto Ascari became Formula 1 world champion for the first time in his careerat the end of a championship always and only led by our country, given that the first leader in that magical year was Piero Taruffi, winner of the first race of the season; at the same time Umberto Masetti was making history by re-winning the 500 class World Championshipgoing on to win his second world title in the premier class. That year Masetti took the first position of the championship on 6 July, in Belgium, lost it momentarily but regained it in Monza in the GP of Nations on 14 September and then also retained it at the end of the last race of the year, on 5 October in Montjuïc. A feat, that of the double Italian world title, which had also been repeated two years earlier, in 1950with i world titles won by Farina and again by Masetti.
Missed precedents
Since then, from that 1952, until the evening of March 29, 2026, it had happened that two Italians led the two F1 and 500/MotoGP championships. The ‘fault’, it must be said, is more than the four wheels. In fact, Italy has rarely found itself with its own representative at the top of the World Cup. Michele Alboreto with Ferrari in 1985 he was first in the standings for several rounds, but that year it was the Italian drivers in the 500 class who missed out.
A curious case had occurred even earlier, in 1966: Lorenzo Bandini he found himself leading the championship after the first two GPs thanks to a second and third place, but lost the championship leadership on 3 July at the end of the French GP. Precisely that same day, at the end of the Belgian GP of the 500 class, Giacomo Agostini jumped to the top of the World Championship in the premier two-wheel class by winning the Spa race. In that case there was only one handover between us.
In this ‘compilation’ a ‘bonus track’ deserves it particular case of the 2005 season: Valentino Rossi he was the reigning world champion and Giancarlo Fisichella he won the first F1 GP of that year, in Australia. Before the two-wheel season started again, however, Fisichella had already lost first place in the championship to teammate Fernando Alonso, so in that season formally there were never two Italians leading the two classifications at the same time. Now, however, we have the award-winning company Bez&Kimi.
