Quartararo takes lead after Catalan crash

FABIO Quartararo has regained control of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship standings with a convincing third victory in the Catalunya MotoGP.

Andrea Dovizioso’s race ended on the opening lap — for the second successive year.

After a few wobbly races since his double win in Jerez, Quartararo produced a flawless performance to pick off fellow Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Franco Morbidelli before sprinting clear.

The Frenchman’s joy was compounded further by a disastrous end to a dismal weekend for erstwhile MotoGP leader Dovizioso after he and Johann Zarco were hit by Danilo Petrucci at Turn 2. 

Off the line Morbidelli had a great start from his maiden pole position, completing the long run down to Turn 1 comfortably ahead of Jack Miller, Quartararo and Rossi.

Then Rossi moved up to second on Quartararo with a pass into Turn 5.

From there the Yamahas began to assert their control, pulling away from Miller and Mir.

Quartararo next got by Rossi again on lap four before nosing ahead of his Petronas SRT Yamaha teammate Morbidelli three laps later.

With Rossi dropping off the back of the pair, it appeared victory would come down to a straight fight between the PSRT pair — only Morbidelli got it all wrong under braking into Turn 1 on lap 15.

 That dropped him to third and out of the fight for the lead, although he did briefly regain second at the expense of Rossi, who slid out at Turn 2 just 9 laps from the end.

Then both Pol Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira suffered the same fate at the same turn.

That let Quartararo to cruise home for his third win of the year.

Behind him, the fight for second ramped up with Morbidelli coming under attack from Suzuki as both Mir and Alex Rins — up from 13th on the grid — came on strong in the latter laps. 

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They pulled off passes on the penultimate lap to grab second and third for Suzuki’s first double podium since its return to MotoGP action in 2015.

Maverick Vinales, meanwhile, had a drop in pace from fifth to 15th, but he  eventually recovered to finish ninth.

Ahead of him, Miller held on for fifth from a charging Pecco Bagnaia, while Takaaki Nakagami kept Honda’s points ticking over with a run to seventh.

Petrucci came in eighth position, ahead of Vinales and Cal Crutchlow, who landed his first top 10 finish of the year.

Results

CHECKOUT: Lucky Vinales on a roll

CHECKOUT: 210km/h step-off after brake failure