MOTO GP

Quartararo takes the title in Misano...Valentino rossi says goodbye

The Emilia-Romagna GP crowned a new MotoGP champion. It looked like a lost weekend for Fabio Quartararo, starting 15th and seeing rival Francesco Bagnaia in pole position. However, when the Italian was leading, with just a few laps to go, everything changed. Pecco crashed, the Yamaha Frenchman's reaction paid off and fourth place at Misano was enough to win the championship in 2021.

The achievement of Quartararo is not surprising. There were five victories in the championship and five more podiums, dominating the event from the start. This was the first match-point for the title and the Frenchman wasted no time.

Marc Márquez took advantage of Bagnaia's fall and took the victory at Misano, the second in a row in the event, followed by teammate Pol Espargaró, making Honda's first double of the current season. Enea Bastianini closed the podium.

Quartararo did a good recovery test and finished fourth. Johann Zarco was fifth, followed by Álex Rins, Aleix Espargaró, Maverick Viñales, Luca Marini and Valentino Rossi, closing the top-10.

As indicated by the weather, Sunday dawned with sun and track and drought in Misano. Before the MotoGP start, the thermometers measured 19°C, with the asphalt reaching 23°C. The relative humidity of the air was around 55%, with the wind speed reaching 10 km/h.

The day on Italy's Adriatic coast, however, did not start well for everyone. Brad Binder crashed as soon as he left the pits to make his way to the grid. The South African escaped injuries and went straight to the pits.

In this second-to-last stage of the season, most drivers opted for medium tires at the front and soft at the back, with the exception of Maverick Viñales, who chose the soft at the front, and Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo, who fitted the rear medium.

For this Sunday, the VR46 is wearing a different paint job, a very yellow layout in tribute to Valentino Rossi(picture below), who makes the last race of his MotoGP career in Italy. In addition to Luca Marini's bike being stamped with a 'Grazie Vale', the SRT Yamaha rider himself also thanked him, with a special helmet dedicated to the fans.

On the grid, some drivers opted to change tires. Viñales put on the mid front, while Miller was tough up front and mid back, the same option as Pecco Bagnaia.

When the lights went out on the Misano straight, the 35,000 spectators at the Italian circuit saw Bagnaia sustain the lead, with Oliveira passing Miller for second place. Marc Márquez also advanced. Taking the fourth post from Pol Espargaró.

Luca Marini, on the other hand, dropped to seventh, while Fabio Quartararo dropped to 17th.

Without much delay, Miller returned to second place, already around 0s4 behind Bagnaia. Oliveira, incidentally, also failed to hold Marc Márquez, who moved up to third place.

Earlier in the race, Joan Mir was punished with a long double lap for having missed the start at Misano. The current champion had only the last place.

Before complying, however, the Spaniard fell in turn 2, as well as the birthday boy Danilo Petrucci. Still in the escape area, the Spaniard sought a hug from the Tech3 driver to apologize.

Meanwhile, Bagnaia followed in the lead, followed by Miller. Marc Márquez was the only one to accompany the Ducati, as Pol Espargaró had already gone 1s7.

Shortly thereafter, still on lap 5, Jack Miller crashed at turn 15, but escaped injury. What was evident, however, was the Australian's irritation, who couldn't contain himself and screamed off the track.

With that, Marc Márquez took second place, ahead of Pol Espargaró, Oliveira, Franco Morbidelli, Aleix Espargaró, Marini, Jorge Martín, Álex Rins and Iker Lecuona. Quartararo was 11th, 7:5 behind Pecco.

Without Miller in the way, Marc stuck to Bagnaia and proceeded to press heavily, but without launching a direct attack. At least for now.

Further back, Quartararo came in tenth. 0s169 behind Álex Rins, who was also not far behind Martín, the ninth. Before being attacked by Fabio, the Suzuki driver went after the rookie and took the eighth place from Jorge.

The Frenchman from Yamaha didn't wait too long and tried to take the ninth place, already 0s6 behind Rins. At this time, Marini was the only Ducati between Pecco and ‘El Diablo’.

On lap ten, shortly after a crash by Takaaki Nakagami, Álex Márquez had to stop due to a mechanical problem with the LCR RC213V.

At the head of the race, Bagnaia remained firmly in the lead, but with Marc close behind. With 17 laps to go, the two were separated by 0s329.

Shortly thereafter, Iker Lecuona crashed into turn 1 and ended a weekend in which he was featured in MotoGP in a negative way.

Not long after, it was Martín who crashed at the first corner. The Spaniard came in tenth place and the fall served to promote Johann Zarco. The Pramac rookie was stretched out on the gravel and received medical care right there.

Meanwhile, Rins passed Marini to take seventh place, leaving the young man from Tavullia to defend against Quartararo.

With 13 laps to go, Rins passed Morbidelli at turn 2, with Marini taking advantage of the momentum to pass as well. Fourthraro wasted no time in leaving his teammate behind. And he even took advantage of Luca's mistake to be seventh at Misano.

On lap 16, Pecco recorded the fastest lap of the race in min32s171, but couldn't decisively get away from Márquez, who was about 0s2 behind.

On the next spin, Quartararo advanced one more space, climbing to sixth after passing Rins. The French came at 15s179 from Pecco.

With only nine laps to go at Misano, Bagnaia managed to open a 0s445 margin to Márquez, one of the biggest differences in the race. Meanwhile, Fabio passed Aleix and took fifth place, 8s5 behind Oliveira, fourth.

Quartararo celebrating its unprecedented title today

With six laps to go, Andrea Dovizioso was punished with a long lap. The Italian had already been warned to respect the limits of the track.

Meanwhile, Enea Bastianini came in seventh, 0s337 behind Rins. The Avintia Italian had been one of the highlights of MotoGP's first run at Misano.

In the sequence, Enea took the sixth place of Rins and placed 1s3 of Quartararo.

At the end, Pecco had finally broken Marc Márquez's resistance and moved away almost 1s.

With only four laps left, however, Bagnaia crashed, anticipating Quartararo's title win in 2021. Miguel Oliveira also crashed, promoting Pol Espargaró and Fabio to the podium.

On the final lap, Bastianini took third place from Quartararo to repeat the performance of the San Marino GP and finish on the podium.

Credits: Mundoquatrorodas