Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Barcelona MotoGP: Quartararo wins as Rossi, Dovizioso crash

Fabio Quartararo took his first win since July and returned to the lead of the MotoGP championship in the Catalan Grand Prix after a lap one crash for Andrea Dovizioso.

Race winner Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Race winner Fabio Quartararo, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The Petronas Yamaha rider dominated the opening two races of 2020 but failed to reach the podium in the subsequent five.

Franco Morbidelli held onto his pole position off the line ahead of the fast-starting Pramac Ducati of Jack Miller.

As the field bunched up through the first two turns, Danilo Petrucci had a moment accelerating from Turn 2 which forced Johann Zarco to check up to avoid the factory Ducati ahead.

But Zarco tucked the front end of his Avintia GP19 and slid into the side of Dovizioso on the sister works Ducati, taking both out of the spot. 

At the front, Valentino Rossi found his way through on Miller at Turn 5 and set about chasing down his protege Morbidelli in the lead.

Miller got out of shape on the way into Turn 10 and almost wiped out Rossi, with Quartararo capitalising to move through into third. 

Morbidelli’s lead over Rossi stood at half a second in the early stages, with the Yamaha trio able to drop Miller pretty quickly.

Quartararo moved ahead of Rossi into the first corner at the start of the sixth lap, and three tours later would take the lead away from his Petronas teammate at the same place. 

Morbidelli ran Quartararo close, but his hopes of victory faded when he almost crashed twice on the way into Turn 1 on lap 14 and dropped behind Rossi into third.

Rossi’s gap to Quartararo stood at six tenths, but hopes of a 200th MotoGP podium on his 350th premier class start were dashed when he slide off at Turn 2.

Morbidelli was promoted to second again, but his rear faded dramatically in the latter stages, with both Suzukis finding their way through to push him off the podium. 

Jon Mir recovered from a steady start to get into second ahead of Morbidelli after passing the Petronas rider at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap. 

The Suzuki rider was able to carve into Quartararo’s lead – which stood at over three seconds at one stage – and was just under a second back at the chequered flag.

Rins came through from 13th on the grid to demote Morbidelli at Turn 10 on the same lap, and followed Mir home for his first podium of the season and the first double rostrum for Suzuki since Misano 2007.

Morbidelli held onto fourth by only 0.545 seconds ahead of the Pramac duo of Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, with Takaaki Nakagami close behind in seventh on the LCR Honda. 

Petrucci was eighth on his works team Ducati, while Maverick Vinales salvaged a lowly ninth on his Yamaha after a miserable afternoon.

Vinales got a poor launch from fifth on the grid and found himself outside of the points in 16th at the end of the first lap. Struggling to overtake on the M1, he benefitted greatly from crashes ahead.

The Yamaha rider bested LCR’s Cal Crutchlow in 10th in the closing stages, with the points rounded out by KTM’s Brad Binder, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, the Honda of Alex Marquez, Iker Lecuona (Tech 3) and Avintia’s Tito Rabat.

Pol Espargaro on the KTM crashed out of the top six battle on lap 13 and was later joined on the sidelines by Tech 3’s Miguel Oliveira. 

Quartararo’s third win of 2020 moves him eight points clear in the championship now, with Mir moving up to second with his fourth podium of the year.

Vinales’ nightmare means he drops 18 points back, with Dovizioso 24 adrift in fourth. Now 50 points down, Rossi’s hopes have taken a serious hammer blow.

Race results:

Cla Rider Bike Gap
1 France Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha
2 Spain Joan Mir
Suzuki 0.928
3 Spain Alex Rins
Suzuki 1.898
4 Italy Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 2.846
5 Australia Jack Miller
Ducati 3.391
6 Italy Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 3.518
7 Japan Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 3.671
8 Italy Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 6.117
9 Spain Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 13.607
10 United Kingdom Cal Crutchlow
Honda 14.483
11 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 14.927
12 Spain Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 15.647
13 Spain Alex Marquez
Honda 17.327
14 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 27.066
15 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 27.282
16 United Kingdom Bradley Smith
Aprilia 28.736
17 Germany Stefan Bradl
Honda 32.643
Portugal Miguel Oliveira
KTM 6 Laps
Italy Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 9 Laps
Spain Pol Espargaro
KTM 12 Laps
France Johann Zarco
Ducati
Italy Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Rossi: "In my heart, I didn’t trust doubts" over MotoGP future
Next article Quartararo: Barcelona win not motivated by Marquez comments

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia