MotoGP

Bastianini ends Gresini’s 16-year MotoGP win drought

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
9 min read

Enea Bastianini took his maiden MotoGP race win in an action-packed Qatar season opener, giving his Gresini Racing team its first victory in the series since 2006 in its first race since reverting to being a satellite operation.

Gresini, which lost team founder Fausto Gresini to COVID-19 last year, had split with Aprilia in favour of running a pair of year-old Ducatis in 2022 – and the Desmosedici GP21 proved perfectly up to the task at the Lusail circuit, which has changed the official spelling of its name during the off-season.

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While Pol Espargaro on the new-look Honda led for almost the entirety of the first 18 laps, he was powerless to resist Bastianini’s trademark late charge – on a day in which the actual factory-spec Ducatis struggled mightily, and a pair of them collided.

Ducati’s flagship rider Francesco Bagnaia, who had been lining up to pass Pramac’s Jorge Martin for eighth place after dropping down to 15th early on, tucked the front amid his attempt and took the poleman into the gravel with him.

The other works Ducati of Jack Miller was clearly compromised with some sort of issue, the Australian pulling into the pits after six laps.

The Ducatis, normally such a threat off the line, had collectively disappointing starts, with Martin having to control a wheelie off pole and then having to check up swiftly to avoid contact with Bastianini – dropping down to seventh place as a result.

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Instead, a Ducati 1-2 on the grid turned into a Honda 1-2 into Turn 1, with Marquez leading into the corner but Espargaro coming out ahead when the six-time champion ran slightly wide.

Marquez sent it down the inside of Espargaro into that same corner the following lap but again went wide and relinquished the position, The next time he ran wide at Turn 1 was on lap six, allowing Brad Binder’s KTM to get ahead – before then yielding to Bastianini on the main straight the following lap.

Around the same time as Bagnaia and Martin came together, Espargaro began to break away from Binder, swiftly turning a half-a-second lead into a one-second lead. And with nine laps left to run, it was Bastianini setting off after Espargaro instead, having eased past Binder on the main straight.

After fighting off Binder, Bastianini – who had made a late switch to a medium rear tyre on the grid, compared to Espargaro’s soft rear – began to quickly close in on the Honda man, arriving on the tail of the new-look RC213V with five laps to go.

The next time they reached the main straight, Bastianini eased past Espargaro – and the Spaniard got Turn 1 all wrong in a desperate attempt to continue the duel, instead slipping behind Binder as he rejoined.

Instead of having to battle Espargaro again, Binder – who, like Bastianini, was a race day standout all throughout 2022 – actually put some late pressure on Bastianini, ultimately taking the chequered flag just 0.346s behind the Gresini man.

It marked KTM’s first-ever podium at Lusail, which had been something of a bogey circuit for its RC16 bike.

Espargaro – bagging his second podium as a Honda rider – managed to maintain good enough pace to avoid a late challenge from his Aprilia-riding brother Aleix, who had forced his way past Marquez in the closing stages.

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Behind Marquez, the two Suzukis of Joan Mir and Alex Rins finished a relatively disappointing sixth and seventh, but it was worse still for Yamaha’s defending champion Fabio Quartararo – who had made a great start but didn’t have the pace to challenge out front and ultimately lost out on eighth place to compatriot Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) by 0.007s.

Takaaki Nakagami made it three Honda riders in the top 10, his LCR Honda team-mate Alex Marquez having been running a place above the Japanese when he slid off at Turn 1.

Also falling at Turn 1 was Binder’s works KTM team-mate Miguel Oliveira, having run outside the top 10 before his shunt.

VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi looked well on course to finish as the top rookie, but fell off at the final corner, opening the door for Remy Gardner (Tech3 KTM) to beat Darryn Binder (RNF Yamaha) by 0.012s to finish as the top newcomer and score a point.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 22 5 42m13.198s 1m54.388s 0 25
2 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 22 0 +0.346s 1m54.484s 0 20
3 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 22 17 +1.351s 1m54.534s 0 16
4 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 22 0 +2.242s 1m54.465s 0 13
5 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 22 0 +4.099s 1m54.643s 0 11
6 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 22 0 +4.843s 1m54.689s 0 10
7 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 22 0 +8.81s 1m54.61s 0 9
8 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 22 0 +10.536s 1m54.671s 0 8
9 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 22 0 +10.543s 1m54.916s 0 7
10 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 22 0 +14.967s 1m55.08s 0 6
11 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 22 0 +16.712s 1m54.853s 0 5
12 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 22 0 +23.216s 1m55.21s 0 4
13 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 22 0 +27.283s 1m55.48s 0 3
14 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 22 0 +27.374s 1m55.415s 0 2
15 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 22 0 +41.107s 1m55.974s 0 1
16 Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 22 0 +41.119s 1m55.591s 0 0
17 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 22 0 +41.349s 1m55.982s 0 0
18 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 22 0 +42.357s 1m55.954s 0 0
Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 11 0 DNF 1m54.771s 0 0
Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 11 0 DNF 1m54.654s 0 0
Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 10 0 DNF 1m54.831s 0 0
Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 9 0 DNF 1m55.205s 0 0
Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 6 0 DNF 1m55.52s 0 0
Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 6 0 DNF 1m55.446s 0 0

Mo 2022 R01 Riderstandings

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