Quartararo Streaks Clear For German GP Win, Bagnaia Crashes
Calum Gill 14:12 19/06/2022
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 Márquez 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 GP22. 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 Espargaró 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 Espargaró for much of the final third of the race and was given an easy pass when Espargaró ran wide at Turn 1 with three laps left to run, handing Miller the podium. The other Aprilia of Maverick Viñales should’ve been part of their battle, shading Espargaró in the early laps, but he abruptly exited the race after an apparent rear ride height device failure.
Espargaró 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 Martín 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 Álex 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 Álex Márquez pulled into the pits to retire with an unspecified issue. Some laps later, works Honda rider Pol Espargaró likewise went into pitlane and dismounted his bike - Espargaró having suffered with rib pain after a highside during Friday practice. This set up a race in which Honda scored no points, with Marc Márquez’s stand-in Stefan Bradl only a distant 16th.
