* Rookie
Francesco Banya detained Fabio Quartararo to win his first victory (and podium) of the season in the Spanish MotoGP in 2022 in Jerez.
This was also the first victory in the race for GP22 Ducati.
Nearly 11 seconds behind, Aleix Espargaro won a close battle to take the podium final, moving him to second place in the World Cup after Quartararo, while Aprilia had already lost technical concessions.
Bagnaia and Quartararo retained their first and second places in the grid in turn 1, with Jack Miller being the best of the others.
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But leaders soon began to back away from Miller, raising hopes for a long-awaited match for Bagnaya’s victory over Quartararo, missed last season, despite their one or two in the World Cup standings.
The reigning champion Quartararo studied Bagnaia from a safe distance of 0.5-0.8s for most of the race, perhaps wary of escalating pressure in the front tires.
But the second was where Quartararo would stay. The Frenchman puts constant pressure on Bagnaia, but is never close enough to attack.
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After losing touch with the leaders, Miller, last year’s winner, was soon attacked by Mark Marquez and Espargaro for the final position on the podium.
The Australian held on, while Marquez, who warned after qualifying that even the top 5 would be difficult, finally pushed Ducati five laps to the end.
But the battle was certainly not over: Espargaro overtook both Miller and Marquez (who ran away after making one of his famous front saves) in the last corner, and Joan Mir also wanted to join the battle!
Now able to develop his superb cornering speed, Espargaro managed to overcome 1.7 seconds of the Marquez-Miller battle won by the Honda rider.
LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami made early wins for fourth, but was forced wide at the end of the first lap by Marquez’s pass and fell back to where he started, in seventh, where he remained.
Former title leader Enea Bastianini finished eighth for Gresini, and VR46’s Marco Bezceki is the top rookie of the ninth. KTM’s Brad Binder finished in the top ten.
Alex Rince started the race on par with Quartararo for the title, but failed to repeat his heroic actions in the first lap of COTA, remaining well outside the top ten before crossing the gravel at turn 12, dropping it to 22nd. He eventually crossed the 19th line.
Espargaro’s teammate from Aprilia, Maverick Vinales, was buried in 20th place in the early stages of his way to 14th.
Pramac Ducati riders Jorge Martin and Johan Zarco, Stefan Bradl and Darin Binder fell.
As expected, all riders chose hard front and middle rear tires.
Tech3 KTM’s Raul Fernandez, who was removed from Portimao’s round last Sunday due to a right-handed injury in qualifying, has also been declared unfit for Jerez.
Factory test racers Bradl (Honda) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) made wild cards this weekend, before the official test on Monday.
Schedule of the Spanish MotoGP – British time
Friday, April 29
8.00-8.40 am – Free training on Moto3 1
8.55-9.40 – Free MotoGP training 1
9.55-10.35 – Free training in Moto2 1
12.15-12.55 – Free training on Moto3 2
13.10-13.55 – Free training on MotoGP 2
14.10-14.50 – Free training in Moto2 2
Saturday, April 30
8.00-8.40 am – Free training on Moto3 3
8.55-9.40 – Free training on MotoGP 3
9.55-10.35 – Free training in Moto2 3
11.35 – 11.50 – Moto3 Qualification 1
12-12.15 – Moto3 Qualification 2
12.30-13h – Free training on MotoGP 4
13.10-13.25 – MotoGP qualifications 1
13.35-13.50 – MotoGP qualification 2
14.10-14.25 – Moto2 Qualification 1
14.35-14.50 – Moto2 Qualification 2
Sunday 1 May
8.00-8.10 – Moto3 warm-up
8.20-8.30 am – Moto2 warm-up
8.40-9 am – Warm-up for MotoGP
10 am – Moto3 race
11.20 am – Moto2 race
13:00 – MotoGP race
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