Bagnaia blasted clear from pole position but briefly lost the lead when spots of rain fell at the end of lap two, as Jorge Martin took the initiative with riders tentatively judging the conditions.
But the rain spots relented and at the start of lap four Bagnaia charged back into the lead at the first corner, and a lap later Bezzecchi repeated the trick on Martin to take second place.
Bagnaia was able to keep clear of any late attacks from the VR46 Ducati rider to clinch his third sprint race win of the season, taking victory by 0.369 seconds, with Martin defending from Pramac Ducati team-mate Johann Zarco to complete the top three.
Bagnaia converted his pole position into the holeshot, while behind him Brad Binder clattered into slow-starting Alex Marquez at the first corner, which sent down the Gresini Ducati rider and earned the South African a long lap penalty.
At the start of the second lap, Martin nipped by Marc Marquez to take second, but moments later the rain flags were displayed which appeared to spook the pack that was uncertain about the track conditions.
This meant a chopping and changing of the order for the following two laps, until the spots of rain drifted away and calm was restored. Bagnaia reasserted himself at the front into Turn 1 on lap four and at the start of lap five title rival Bezzecchi nipped into second place ahead of Martin.
With both conditions and the order stabilising, Bagnaia maintained his advantage over the closing laps to keep out of reach of a late attack from Bezzecchi to take the win.
Martin fended off Pramac Ducati team-mate Zarco on the final lap to complete the sprint race top three, with VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini fighting through an injury to take fifth ahead of the squabbling KTM of Jack Miller and Honda's Marc Marquez.
Aleix Espargaro, another nursing an injury, took eighth place for Aprilia as Ducati factory rider Enea Bastianini saw the chequered flag for the first time this season after an injury in the opening sprint race back in Portugal. The Italian took ninth to round out the points-paying positions.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo just missed out in 10th, as Binder’s long lap penalty meant he was only able to recover to 11th – but he did set a new top speed record in MotoGP when he blasted to 227.48mph on his factory KTM.
Bagnaia’s sprint race win means he extends his MotoGP world championship lead to four points over Bezzecchi ahead of Sunday’s Italian GP at Mugello.
MotoGP Italian GP - Sprint race results:
| Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Francesco Bagnaia |
 |
Ducati | |
| 2 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi |
 |
Ducati | 0.369 |
| 3 | 89 |  Jorge Martin |
 |
Ducati | 0.952 |
| 4 | 5 |  Johann Zarco |
 |
Ducati | 1.009 |
| 5 | 10 | Luca Marini |
 |
Ducati | 3.668 |
| 6 | 43 |  Jack Miller |
 |
KTM | 3.772 |
| 7 | 93 | Marc Marquez |
 |
Honda | 3.905 |
| 8 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro |
 |
Aprilia | 6.062 |
| 9 | 23 | Enea Bastianini |
|
Ducati | 6.431 |
| 10 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo |
 |
Yamaha | 6.458 |
| 11 | 33 |  Brad Binder |
 |
KTM | 6.672 |
| 12 | 88 |  Miguel Oliveira |
 |
Aprilia | 7.930 |
| 13 | 12 | Maverick Viñales |
 |
Aprilia | 9.022 |
| 14 | 49 | Fabio Di Giannantonio |
 |
Ducati | 11.508 |
| 15 | 51 | Michele Pirro |
 |
Ducati | 14.344 |
| 16 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli |
|
Yamaha | 16.666 |
| 17 | 30 |  Takaaki Nakagami |
 |
Honda | 16.725 |
| 18 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori |
 |
Aprilia | 17.247 |
| 19 | 25 | Raúl Fernández |
 |
Aprilia | 21.596 |
| 20 | 37 | Augusto Fernandez |
 |
KTM | 35.212 |
| 21 | 94 |  Jonas Folger |
 |
KTM | 46.189 |
| 42 | Alex Rins |
 |
Honda | ||
| 73 | Alex Marquez |
 |
Ducati | ||
| View full results | |||||
