MotoGP

Quartararo crash gives Bagnaia points lead, Suzuki’s Rins wins

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
9 min read

Suzuki MotoGP rider Alex Rins took victory in a blockbuster Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, as Francesco Bagnaia took over the championship lead and Fabio Quartararo crashed out.

Quartararo had already made a major error early in the race before falling while trying to recover, his two-point lead over Bagnaia coming into Phillip Island turning into a 14-point disadvantage.

It was a vintage Phillip Island pack race, with the top seven split by 0.884s at the flag as Rins fought off Marc Marquez on the final lap.

It marked LCR Honda-bound Rins’s fourth MotoGP win, and Suzuki’s first since 2020 in what was the third-to-last race of the marque’s current premier-class programme.

There was rain overnight and a shower during MotoGP warm-up – the damp track causing a crash for Marquez – but the track was already effectively dry in time for the Moto3 race, never mind the MotoGP grand prix three hours later.

Quartararo moved past his two main title rivals off the line with an excellent launch, but was relegated back behind Aleix Espargaro and Bagnaia in an opening-lap tussle that let the top two starters, poleman Jorge Martin and Marquez, break away by nearly a second.

And soon after Bagnaia reclaimed third he had Ducati factory team-mate Jack Miller behind him, Miller having picked off Quartararo’s Yamaha through the Doohan corner and Espargaro’s Aprilia with a lunge down Turn 10.

On the fourth lap, Quartararo dropped behind VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini, too – and, finding himself battling in the pack, he made a huge mess of Turn 4, getting his braking all wrong into the corner newly-named after Miller.

Narrowly avoiding contact with his fellow riders, he rejoined the race alongside Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli, running out of the top 20.

He’d recover to 15th by lap 11, on course to score points after all, before crashing out at the Southern Loop. Morbidelli himself would also fall out of the race 11 laps later.

Soon after Quartararo’s initial error eliminated him from the fight, Miller attempted two Turn 10 lunges on Bagnaia in back-to-back laps, the second proving successful – only for Bagnaia to counter-attack on the main straight.

And Miller’s race wouldn’t last much longer after that, as he was brutally wiped out at Turn 4 – the newly-named Miller corner – by Alex Marquez, with the LCR Honda rider getting his overtaking attempt on Luca Marini badly wrong.

By that point, Miller had already been jumped by Rins – who had been just ninth at the end of the opening lap but steadily picked his way through the pack. He passed the works Ducatis in consecutive laps at Southern Loop, slipstreamed past the elder Marquez at the start of lap 11 and finally took the lead off Martin on lap 14 at the Stoner corner.

Yet with Martin then demoted by both Bagnaia and Marquez at Miller corner, Rins’ initial lead proved shortlived as the duo muscled their way past him on the following tour, albeit with Rins repassing Marquez two laps later.

That allowed Rins to then take first place from Bagnaia out of the Southern Loop, but two corners into the next lap he was down to fourth, overtaken by Bagnaia, VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi and Marquez.

With three laps to go, Rins was back on Bagnaia’s tail – yet having to work hard to fight off Marquez at the same time. The Suzuki man finally overtook Bagnaia at Southern Loop on the final tour – and, with Marquez taking advantage to also get past the title hopeful, Rins had to out-duel the six-time MotoGP champion over the rest of the lap.

Behind Bagnaia, Bezzecchi narrowly held off the charging fellow year-old Ducati of Gresini rider Enea Bastianini, who was running outside the points-scoring places in the early going.

Marini and Martin completed the ultra-close top seven, while Martin’s Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco, recovering from a particularly poor opening lap, made it six Ducatis between third and eighth.

Espargaro struggled after the lively start, finishing ninth to go into Sepang 27 points off Bagnaia – and 15 points up on Bastianini, the only other remaining title contender.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 27 2 40m50.654s 1m29.85s 0 25
2 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 27 0 +0.186s 1m30.117s 0 20
3 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 27 11 +0.224s 1m30.096s 0 16
4 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 27 0 +0.534s 1m29.796s 0 13
5 Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 27 0 +0.557s 1m29.88s 0 11
6 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 27 0 +0.688s 1m29.903s 0 10
7 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 27 13 +0.884s 1m30.092s 0 9
8 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 27 0 +3.141s 1m29.622s 0 8
9 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 27 0 +4.548s 1m29.793s 0 7
10 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +5.94s 1m29.901s 0 6
11 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 27 0 +11.048s 1m30.256s 0 5
12 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +13.606s 1m30.089s 0 4
13 Cal Crutchlow WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 27 0 +13.89s 1m30.349s 0 3
14 Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 27 0 +14.526s 1m30.211s 0 2
15 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +19.47s 1m30.145s 0 1
16 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +20.645s 1m30.106s 0 0
17 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 27 0 +22.167s 1m30.14s 0 0
18 Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 27 0 +23.489s 1m30.284s 0 0
19 Tetsuta Nagashima LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 27 0 +39.618s 1m31.049s 0 0
20 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 27 0 +39.633s 1m30.687s 0 0
Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 21 0 DNF 1m30.306s 0 0
Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 10 0 DNF 1m30.019s 0 0
Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 8 0 DNF 1m30.06s 0 0
Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 8 0 DNF 1m29.805s 0 0
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