Quartararo crowned MotoGP champion, Marquez wins

Marc Marquez profited from a crash by Francesco Bagnaia to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Misano as Fabio Quartararo secured his maiden MotoGP world title.

Marquez launched well off the start to immediately fly up to third by the end of the opening tour, the Honda man keeping Ducati duo Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller firmly within sight.

Keen to add a third win of 2021 to his tally, Marquez searched for a way past the Aussie as Bagnaia started to edge way in front, though his prayers were answered as Miller lost the front of his Desmosedici at Turn 15, allowing him to focus on closing down the leader.

He utilised the soft front tyre mounted to the front of his RC213-V against the hard compound rubber on Bagnaia’s machine to quickly arrive on the rear of the Italian, though over the next dozen or so laps looked to sit behind and wit for an opportunity to attack in the latter stages of the contest.

With only half-a-dozen laps remaining though the tide looked to have changed as Bagnaia started to extend his advantage as Marquez looked like he was struggling with tyre wear, but just as it looked the race was his Bagnaia tucked the front of his own Ducati at the very same bend 20 laps previously-Bagnaia’s race and championship coming to an end there and then.

This left Marquez to cruise home over the final few laps to record his second straight victory by 4.8 seconds over Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro, who scored his first ever rostrum for the manufacturer and collected Honda’s first 1-2 result since the 2017 Aragon GP.

Enea Bastianini meanwhile repeated his heroics of five years ago as he charged through the field in the closing stages to snatch third from Quartararo on the final circulation, though it didn’t matter for the Frenchman as Bagnaia’s exit meant he had secured the 2021 MotoGP world championship with two rounds to spare.

Quartararo recovered from a sluggish start-where he dropped to 17^th from 15^th– to methodically work his way through the pack, eventually getting to fifth with eight laps to go but too far behind fourth placed Miguel Oliveira to challenge the KTM man.

This soon became third following a crash for not only Bagnaia but an issue for Oliveria too, before crossing the line fourth after being passed by Bastianini with a strong move at Turn 14, a result enough to crown him as the first ever French premier class world champion.

Johann Zarco ended up fifth ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, while Aprilia pair Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Luca Marini was forced to make do with ninth after slipping back late on, while Valentino Rossi at least managed to complete his final MotoGP race on home soil on a good note with a decent recovery to tenth after starting at the back in 23^rd.

Franco Morbidelli fell to 14^th after struggling in the climactic stages of the event, with Takaaki Nakagami taking the final point despite crashing early on.

Joan Mir had to relinquish his crown in the worst circumstances possible after crashing out of the race early after coming together with Tech 3’s Danilo Petrucci, while Jorge Martin also lost out on a possible top ten result with a nasty Turn 1 spill at around mid-distance.

Misano Adriatico, Sunday, October 24, 2021