Tears flowed as Italian Ducati rider Enea Bastianini held off a late charge from South African KTM rider Brad Binder to claim a sensational maiden MotoGP win in Qatar.
Honda’s Pol Espargaro, from Spain, claimed the third podium position at this opening round of the 2022 MotoGP series at the Losail International Circuit, located just outside in the town of Lusail, north of Doha.
It wasn’t all good news for fans of Ducati, however, with factory riders Francesco Bagnaia and pole-winner Jorge Martin crashing out after colliding with one another at turn one.
Pramac Ducati team rider Martin and Bastianini, riding for the Gresini Racing MotoGP team, got a shocking launch off the line while Marc Marquez, still not 100% after his arm-breaking crash in 2020, and Pol Esparagaro made it a Repsol Honda 1-2 heading into turn one.
Making up the top three on the exit of turn one was Binder, who also made a stunning getaway from P7 aboard his KTM RC16 machine.
Another fast starter was Suzuki’s Joan Mir, the 2020 world champion making up four places over the first two laps.
However, Mir’s progress soon slowed once behind the two Hondas and Binder who were controlling the pace out in front.
With things looking relatively settled, a change for second place came at the beginning of lap six as Marquez ran wide at turn one, allowing Binder to come through.
Marquez was then shuffled down to P4 as Bastianini began to make his way back towards the front. Bastianini’s move on Marquez came just a few corners after getting past Mir.
Laps eight and nine saw back-to-back retirements as Australian Jack Miller made his way down pit lane due to an issue with his factory Ducati, while Marco Bezzecchi crashed at turn 16.
Alex Marquez was the next rider to suffer a fall as turn one claimed the LCR Honda rider. Just a few moments later and it was Miguel Oliveira who was next to fall victim at turn one as he suffered a front end crash like Marquez.
At the front, the top four of Pol Espargaro, Binder, Bastianini and Marquez began to pull clear, as Aleix Espargaro made his way through on Mir for fifth.
A race-defining incident then came with 11 laps to go as a coming together between Bagnaia and Martin led to both riders crashing out.
Bagnaia, who was making a move into turn one, lost the front which led to him wiping out the pole sitter.
At the start of lap 14 Bastianini made his way past Binder as the South African started to lose significant ground on Pol Espargaro.
Despite maintaining a very quick pace at the front, Espargaro’s lead was reduced to under one second for the first time in four laps as Bastianini began closing in with seven to go.
A nine tenth lead was then reduced to six in the space of one lap as Bastianini could see a first MotoGP win up ahead.
Bastianini’s next lap round, lap 18 of 22 was a new fastest lap of the race before an inevitable change for the lead came on lap 19.
Bastianini used the Ducati’s incredible top speed to get ahead before the start-finish line before Espargaro made a huge mistake on the brakes.
Espargaro seemed to get affected by the dirty air of Bastianini’s bike and ran off-track which allowed Binder through.
The final two laps saw Binder break clear of Espargaro and begin to reel in Bastianini, however, the second-year MotoGP rider held on in brilliant fashion to win by three tenths.
Pol Espargaro managed to hold off his brother Aleix Espargaro for third, while Marquez came across the line in a subdued P5 – seven tenths ahead of Mir.
Rounding out the top 10 were Alex Rins, Johann Zarco, who pipped a disappointing defending world champion, Fabio Quartararo, over the line, and Takaaki Nakagami in tenth respectively.
The 24-year-old Bastianini, nicknamed “La Bestia” (The Beast), was the 2020 Moto2 World Champion.
Photo courtesy Ducati
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2022 MotoGP World Champs standings after round one:
- Enea Bastianini, ITA, Gresini Ducati (GP21) 25
- Brad Binder, RSA, Red Bull KTM (RC16) 20 (-5)
- Pol Espargaro, SPA, Repsol Honda (RC213V) 16 (-9)
- Aleix Espargaro, SPA, Aprilia Racing (RS-GP) 13 (-12)
- Marc Marquez, SPA, Repsol Honda (RC213V) 11 (-14)
- Joan Mir, SPA, Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 10 (-15)
- Alex Rins, SPA, Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 9 (-16)
- Johann Zarco, FRA, Pramac Ducati (GP22) 8 (-17)
- Fabio Quartararo, FRA, Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) 7 (-18)
- Takaaki Nakagami, JPN, LCR Honda (RC213V) 6 (-19)
- Franco Morbidelli, ITA, Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) 5 (-20)
- Maverick Viñales, SPA, Aprilia Racing (RS-GP) 4 (-21)
- Luca Marini, ITA, Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22) 3 (-22)
- Andrea Dovizioso, ITA, WithU Yamaha RNF (YZR-M1) 2 (-23)
- Remy Gardner, AUS, KTM Tech3 (RC16) 1 (-24)