In a race won by Alex Rins of Spain, the runner-up, a Frenchman, went all the way down to the canvas before being forced to retire.
Put the Devil himself on the canvas! The Frenchman Fabio Quartararo had been leading the title since April, but he took a tumble at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday and lost a significant amount of ground to his competitor Francesco Bagnaia, who is now in the lead after the race in Australia was won by the Spaniard Alex Rins.
After the 18th round of the season (out of 20), the Italian, who finished third in the GP, has now accumulated 233 points in the championship. This is 14 points more than the defending world champion Quartararo (Yamaha-219 points), who was forced to give up after collapsing.
Next weekend, the Ducati rider, who is 25 years old and competes in MotoGP, will be in Malaysia competing on the Sepang circuit. He has a chance to win his maiden world championship.
There are still two more races to go before the championship is decided.
Despite this, Quartararo felt it necessary to reaffirm himself. “You have to believe in it, but I’m mainly going to focus on having fun,” the Nicois said, “I haven’t been able to enjoy racing for a long time.” Regarding the fact that he had deserted her, he stated, “It’s a mistake on my part, I wanted to push too much.”
The Frenchman had a good start, coming in fifth on the grid, but he fell back to 15th place before the halfway point. Soon after the race had begun, he had already committed a mistake, which resulted in his falling 17 places in the standings.
“When I saw that Fabio had retired, I said to myself that a victory was possible but that if they passed me on the last lap, it did not matter,” for his part reacted Bagnaia, in front of the public that was authorized to enter the track after the arrival of the pilots. “When I saw that Fabio had retired, I said to myself that a victory was possible but that if they passed me on the last lap, it did not matter,” for his part reacted Bag
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Aleix Espargaro of Spain, who is now in third place in the league, came in ninth place and is 27 points behind Bagnaia.
If the Aprilia rider is still mathematically in the race, like the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati-Gresini), who finished fifth in the GP, his chances are slim knowing that there are still 50 points up for grabs to be given.
Both the event’s local rider, Jack Miller (Ducati), who was injured in a violent fall on Sunday, and the other Frenchman on the starting grid, Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac), who finished eighth in the race, decided to withdraw from the competition.
Alex Rins was victorious in front of 40,000 spectators at the end of a breathless end of race. It was at this point that the Suzuki rider definitively took advantage of Bagnaia, who had been in the lead up until that point.
The Spaniard, imperial after starting from 10th place, signs his fourth victory in MotoGP – the first this season for him and for Suzuki, who will depart MotoGP after the season. The victory comes after the Spaniards started the race in 10th place.
He leads six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez (Honda), who is currently in second place after also passing Bagnaia. Marquez won his 100th MotoGP podium in Australia, but it was the first of a season in which he did not compete in every race due to health issues. He is currently ahead of Bagnaia.
“This podium means a lot, to keep the motivation, to show that I am still the driver who won six titles,” said Marquez, who returned to competition one month ago after a fourth operation on his right arm. “This podium means a lot, to keep the motivation, to show that I am still the driver who won six titles,” said Marquez.
Guevara champion in Moto3
After a race that was marked by the fall of his fellow countryman Augusto Fernandez (KTM Ajo), the victory in Moto2 went to the Spaniard Alonso Lopez. Augusto Fernandez’s loss allowed the Japanese rider Ai Ogura to take the lead in the championship (Honda ).
In Guevara (GasGas), a Spaniard won the Moto3 world championship after claiming victory on the Australian track. The title was awarded to Guevara two races before the end of the season. Guevara’s pursuers have little chance of catching up to him now that he is 65 points ahead of them.
This past weekend, several former MotoGP world champions traveled to Phillip Island in the southeast of Australia, at the crossroads of the Pacific and Indian oceans, for the return of the Australian GP to the calendar after two seasons of absence due to Covid-19. The race took place at the crossroads of the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Among them is the two-time reigning world champion from Australia, Casey Stoner (2007 and 2011), as well as the three-time reigning world champion from Spain in the queen category, Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012, and 2015), who had his nine-year-old record for fastest lap time broken on Saturday by the race’s pole sitter, Jorge Martin.
Michael Masi, the controversial former Australian Formula 1 race director who is notorious for making contentious choices at the final F1 GP of the previous season, was also present in the paddock during the event.
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