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

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	164.3	40’33.176
2	20	36	Joan MIR	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	164.2	+0.928
3	16	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	164.1	+1.898
4	13	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	164.1	+2.846
5	11	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Pramac Racing	Ducati	164.0	+3.391
6	10	63	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	164.0	+3.518
7	9	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	164.0	+3.671
8	8	9	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati	163.8	+6.117
9	7	12	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	163.3	+13.607
10	6	35	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	163.3	+14.483
11	5	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	163.2	+14.927
12	4	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	163.2	+15.647
13	3	73	Alex MARQUEZ	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	163.1	+17.327
14	2	27	Iker LECUONA	SPA	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	162.4	+27.066
15	1	53	Tito RABAT	SPA	Esponsorama Racing	Ducati	162.4	+27.282
16		38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	162.3	+28.736
17		6	Stefan BRADL	GER	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	162.1	+32.643
Not Classified
		88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	163.9	6 Laps
		46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	165.0	9 Laps
		44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	164.1	12 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
		5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Esponsorama Racing	Ducati		0 Lap
		4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Ducati Team	Ducati		0 Lap