MotoGP: Quartararo takes advantage of Alex Espargaro's mistake to win the Catalan Grand Prix

There are more and more reasons to believe that Fabio Quartararo, the outstanding leader of the Moto GP World Championship, is the most complete rider in the Premier class. At the age of 23, the Frenchman, who grew up in Spain in an athletic form, survived on Sunday from the fall festival at the Grand Prix in Catalonia and, with an overwhelming drive, clenched his fists from the first corner, when he took first place, leaving everything behind. His opponents give the hero aura until he crosses the finish line in the lead.

The person from Nice, who renewed with Yamaha this week until 2024, has so far shown in the championship that he knows better than anyone the virtues and drawbacks of his bike, and is inferior in speed to the Ducati and the Aprilia of Alex Espargaro, which when he was on his way to the fifth podium Straight, and I think the race has finished a lap from the finish and ceded some positions that could be key in the title fight: He finished fifth. “You can’t take a mistake like that to compete for the Moto GP title. Sadly after the finish, Jorge Martin took advantage of the second mistake and Johan Zarco finished third,” said the Catalan.

Espargaro, who finished second after a massive fight with Jorge Martin, arrived in the box miserable, crying under his helmet to the useless applause from all his mechanics. Dorna’s CEO, Carmelo Ezpeleta, went to the Aprilia Fund to try and console the Granollers man, who, after his mistake, dropped 13 points compared to evil In the World Cup when everything indicated that he would only lose five.

Quartararo, jubilant at the end, is now the tournament leader with a score of 22 Point in front of Espargaró, who missed column done on Saturday. At a driving party on Yamaha, the Frenchman increased the distance with his co-runners on the track while increasing the advantage at the world championship table, with all competitors, other than the oldest Espargaró, already over fifty of points.

Pecco Bagnaia, who was a few thousandths away from getting column In Saturday’s qualifying, he bid farewell to all his chances of winning in the first corner, when Takaaki Nakagami, who came from behind, crashed and threw the Italian, winner of the last Grand Prix of Italy, hitting the rear wheel with the helmet; And for the second race in a row, to Alex Rains, with whom he had already exchanged intense statements at Mugello –You are the best Nakagami (You are the best, Nakagami), Barcelonan said, ironically, when he returned to the box.

In addition to the fall of German Stefan Bradel, replacing Marc Marquez in the Repsol Honda team after the indefinite retirement of the Spaniard, who has already undergone surgery on his right shoulder in Minnesota (USA); Four drivers retired before the end of the first round. Soon, the Italians Marco Pizzichi, Fabio Di Giannatonio, Andrea Dovizioso and Inna Bastianini came down and called the race early. After the unprecedented fall fest in the first half, the Test seemed to sink into a strange natural state, but everything was blown up by Espargaro’s fault, which, as Quartararo admitted after the finale, “could be key in the fight for the title”.

With five different winners in nine races, it looks like the most disparate world championship in recent years will pick up the pace in the lead. With 11 races yet to be played, or what is the same, 225 points, everything is not decided yet, but as it did last year, when he was declared world champion in Moto GP for the first time, it looks like Quartararo is starting to impose himself on the rest. . The Frenchman claimed his second victory of the season in Catalonia, and a caution at the finish line – “there’s still a long way to go” – cemented his World Cup leadership in the face of his own doubts and mistakes. his rivals. Now, after a week off, the championship will return on June 19 at the German Grand Prix being held at Sachsenring.

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