QUARTARARO MASTERCLASS IN GERMANY
It was yet another Fabio Quartararo masterclass as the reigning MotoGP World Champion dominated the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
The factory Yamaha rider took the race win by 4.9s from Johann Zarco, while Aussie Jack Miller came back from a long-lap penalty to finish third, his third podium of the season.
By taking his second consecutive race win Quartararo pulls over a race clear of his championship rivals with a 34-point lead.
Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro remains second in the title race after finishing fourth, but the Ducati Team’s Francesco Bagnaia crashed out while chasing Quartararo on Lap 4.
Bagnaia’s crash let Quartararo off the leash and he romped to a dominant win.
Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco finished in a lonely second, in what he described post-race as the most physical of his MotoGP career.
Aussie Miller was handed a long lap penalty for dangerous riding when he crashed under yellow flag conditions in practice 4.
The long lap dropped him towards the tail of the top 10 early in the race, however Miller was in fine form and stormed back through the field to finish third, a good bounce back after scoring just three points in the previous two races.
It appeared at the halfway stage it would be a fight between the two Aprilias for third, with Maverick Vinales catching his championship contending teammate Espargaro.
However, the rear ride height device on Vinales’ Aprilia got stuck on and became unridable forcing him to retire.
Espargaro’s pace dropped late on and race wide at Turn 1, Miller didn’t need another invitation and he snatched third.
Espargaro came home in third ahead of VR46 Racing Team’s Luca Marini who matched his career high MotoGP finish of fifth.
Marini prevailed in a race long battle with Jorge Martin as they finished fifth and sixth respectively, while KTM star Brad Binder demonstrated once again his long run pace on Sunday moving up from 15th to finish in seventh.
The top 10 was rounded out by Fabio Di Giannantonio, Miguel Oliveira and former championship contender Enea Bastianini.
Another championship contender fell by the wayside in Germany, after starting from pole, Bagnaia’s latest crash sees him falls 91 points behind Quartararo, not far of four race wins.
The remaining points went to Marco Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez – who scored his best result to date, – Franco Morbidelli, Andrea Dovizioso and the second Aussie Remy Gardner.
It was a highly attritional race, only Stefan Bradl finished outside of the points.
Other retirements included Pol Espargaro who retired due to rib pain from a crash in practice. Alex Marquez also had a rear ride height device failure, while his LCR Honda teammate Takaaki Nakagami crashed out, as did Darryn Binder and the sole Suzuki of Joan Mir.
Alex Rins did not start following his injury sustained in the multiple rider Turn 1 crash in Spain.
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