QUARTARARO RETURNS TO THE TOP
Fabio Quartararo returns to the top – Photo: LAT
Fabio Quartararo has rebounded from a tough run of races to take his third victory of the season and in doing so has retaken the top spot in the MotoGP Championship.
By DAN McCARTHY
Prior to the Catalan Grand Prix, Petronas Yamaha rider Quartararo had not finished on the podium since taking the back to back victories in Jerez in July at the start of the season.
The Frenchman made his way to the front early in the race and held off challenges from fellow Yamaha riders Franco Morbidelli, Valentino Rossi and the two factory Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins.
Quartararo would go on to take his third career premier class win by 0.928s from Mir and 1.898s ahead of Rins.
With Mir and Rins both on the podium, it marked the first time that two Suzukis had both been on the same podium in 13 years. The last time was John Hopkins and Australian Chris Vermeulen at Misano in 2007.
Starting from his maiden pole position Franco Morbidelli made a great start and led the opening portion of the race before his Petronas Yamaha teammate took first position.
Morbidelli kept up with the young Frenchman Quartararo, until he made a large mistake just over halfway into the race, Morbidelli would go on to finish in fourth.
Australian Jack Miller on his Pramac Ducati was the only competitor capable of keeping with the trio of Yamahas, although did eventually slide back to finish the race in fifth.
Miller had to hold off his teammate ‘Pecco Bagnaia’ on the last lap who came storming through from his low qualifying spot.
Bagnaia would go on to finish the race sixth, less than two tenths behind his Aussie teammate.
Top Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami and factory Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci finished in seventh and eighth and positions respectively.
On lap 1 Petrucci had an innocent slide at Turn 2 on the opening lap caused Johann Zarco to fall off his Ducati and crucially eliminate championship leader Andrea Dovizioso from the race.
For the second year running the factory Ducati rider was innocently taken out in a crash at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.
Dovi was not the only big name to take a tumble, seven-time premier class champion Rossi crashed out of a comfortable second position as he began to gap Morbidelli behind him.
Last weekend’s race winner Maverick Vinales plummeted at the start of the race, falling from fifth to outside the top 15-point scoring places, and struggled to recover from that moment onwards.
The Spaniard limited the damage coming home in ninth, after coming top of a ding-dong battle with Englishman Cal Crutchlow who rounded out the top 10.
Brad Binder on his factory KTM machine finished the race in 12th ahead of Aleix Esparagro, Alex Marquez, Iker Lecuona and Tito Rabat.
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