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MotoGP

Quartararo ends Honda streak with German GP win, Bagnaia out

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
5 min read

until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

MotoGP championship leader Fabio Quartararo waltzed to victory at the Sachsenring, recording the first non-Honda premier-class triumph at the track since 2010.

Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez had combined to win the 11 previous German Grands Prix, but with the former long retired and the latter recovering from surgery, Honda had a particularly miserable day.

Quartararo, for his part, produced a show of steely dominance, making the most out of an early Francesco Bagnaia crash to once again assert his authority over his rivals.

Given his pattern of slow starts in 2022 so far, Bagnaia actually got an above-average getaway from pole – but Quartararo was marginally better, allowing him to take over the inside line with a brave lunge into Turn 1.

Bagnaia kept Quartararo honest over the rest of the opening lap and himself launched a slipstream-aided attack down the inside of Turn 1 next time by, but was just wide enough of the apex for Quartararo to stick his Yamaha back down the inside and ahead of the Ducati.

That was as close as Bagnaia would get to the lead. Two laps later, at the same Turn 1 and with Quartararo now half a second clear, he lost the rear of his bike exiting corner and cut a dumbfounded figure stood over his Desmosedici.

Bagnaia’s crash gave Quartararo a lead of over a second over Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco, who had yielded third place to Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro off the line but muscled his way back through at Turn 11, named after the late 125cc and 250cc frontrunner Ralf Waldmann.

Zarco, equipped with a hard rear tyre to Quartararo’s medium rear, briefly looked like threatening his compatriot – but could no longer keep up around the halfway point, allowing Quartararo to escape into the distance and win by an eventual five seconds.

Freshly confirmed this weekend as staying with Pramac in 2022, Zarco settled for his 15th MotoGP podium – albeit still chasing his maiden win – and is now the highest-placed Ducati rider in the standings.

A long-lap penalty for crashing under yellow flags in fourth practice proved little hindrance for Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller, who was demoted from fourth to seventh when serving it but muscled his way back up the order.

He shadowed Espargaro for much of the final third of the race and was given an easy pass when Espargaro ran wide at Turn 1 with three laps left to run, handing Miller the podium.

The other Aprilia of Maverick Vinales should’ve been part of their battle, shading Espargaro in the early laps, but he abruptly exited the race after an apparent rear ride height device failure.

Espargaro claimed fourth and now trails Quartararo by 34 points, with another 27 between himself and Zarco.

VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini equalled his career-best finish in MotoGP – and arguably produced his by far most impressive race in the class – with fifth, ahead of Pramac rider Jorge Martin in what was the latter’s first race since carpal tunnel syndrome surgery.

Rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio ran fifth for much of the race, but faded late on, eventually bringing his Gresini-run 2021-spec Ducati home in eighth, right behind the lead KTM of Brad Binder.

Joan Mir – Suzuki’s sole representative in the race with Alex Rins absent through injury – crashed mere metres before Bagnaia at Turn 1 while being overtaken by Miguel Oliveira. RNF Yamaha rookie Darryn Binder also fell out the race at the final corner around that time.

The two LCR Honda riders exited the race in quick succession, with Takaaki Nakagami ending his crash-filled weekend with a fall at Turn 10 mere moments after Alex Marquez pulled into the pits to retire with an unspecified issue.

Some laps later, works Honda rider Pol Espargaro likewise went into pitlane and dismounted his bike – Espargaro having suffered with rib pain after a highside during Friday practice.

This set up a race in which Honda scored no points, with Marquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl only a distant 16th.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 30 30 41m12.816s 1m21.584s 0 25
2 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 30 0 +4.939s 1m21.718s 0 20
3 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 30 0 +8.372s 1m21.865s 0 16
4 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 30 0 +9.113s 1m21.938s 0 13
5 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 30 0 +11.679s 1m22.039s 0 11
6 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 30 0 +13.164s 1m22.004s 0 10
7 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 30 0 +15.405s 1m21.996s 0 9
8 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 30 0 +15.851s 1m22.005s 0 8
9 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 30 0 +19.74s 1m22.183s 0 7
10 Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 30 0 +21.611s 1m22.363s 0 6
11 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 30 0 +23.175s 1m22.469s 0 5
12 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 30 0 +26.548s 1m22.376s 0 4
13 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 30 0 +29.014s 1m22.394s 0 3
14 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 30 0 +30.68s 1m22.518s 0 2
15 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 30 0 +30.812s 1m22.469s 0 1
16 Stefan Bradl Repsol Honda Team Honda 30 0 +52.04s 1m23.19s 0 0
Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 22 0 DNF 1m22.38s 0 0
Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 19 0 DNF 1m21.77s 0 0
Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 6 0 DNF 1m22.335s 0 0
Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 6 0 DNF 1m23.458s 0 0
Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 5 0 DNF 1m23.23s 0 0
Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 3 0 DNF 1m21.949s 0 0
Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 3 0 DNF 1m22.652s 0 0
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