Between Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), leader of the World Championship, and Johann Zarco (Ducati), author of pole position on Saturday, the French showed great ambitions, Sunday at the British Grand Prix, the first race for more than a month, after the summer break of the Championship. Alas, the two Habs missed their race.
Zarco had made a very good start and took control of the GP. He was leading without pressure, when, after only five laps of the race, the French driver was the victim of a fall, all alone, following a loss of control of his motorcycle, in a bend. Johann Zarco was not injured, but was forced to retire. At 32, for his sixth season in MotoGP, he will still have to wait before winning a Grand Prix in the queen category.
After his ”long lap”, Quartararo fell in the standings
Quartararo had also made a good start, rising from the first few meters from fourth place – his rank after qualifying – to second. For a few minutes, we had two Frenchmen at the forefront of the GP. But, for having hindered a competitor at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands, at the end of June, Fabio Quartararo had received a penalty and a ”long lap” to performat the start of the race.
Coming out, the reigning world champion was fifth. But he was never able to come back to the leading competitors. After having been between fourth and sixth position for a long time, Quartararo finally fell back to eighth place. He had not been so poorly ranked since the Argentine Grand Prix last April (not to mention his retirement in the Netherlands).
Quartararo finishes ahead of Espargaro
In the Championship standings, Fabio Quartararo limited the damage, however, since the Spaniard Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), his rival for the world title, finished ninth, physically limited by a big fall during the last free practice session on Saturday. Quartararo even took the opportunity to grab a point. He is now 22 units ahead of Espargaro.
The British GP was won by the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who thus signed his fourth victory of the season (after Spain, Italy and the Netherlands). He beat Spaniard Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) and Australian Jack Miller (Ducati). The next Grand Prix will take place on August 21 in Austria.
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