French GP
Third victory of the season for the Italian after beating his compatriot Bagnaia, who ended up on asphalt, and a remarkable third place for the Catalan ahead of Quartararo, the local idol
No less than 110,000 people filled the Le Mans Circuit this Sunday. A passionate crowd eager to see one of their MotoGP riders win. Johann Zarco or, above all, Fabio Quartararo, ‘El Diablo’, the 2021 world champion, the favorite to win with the papers in hand. The Yamaha rider had shown in all the practice sessions a higher pace than his rivals, much compared to some, and somewhat less compared to others, especially Pecco Bagnaia, who had cut his advantage on Saturday afternoon .
Bagnaia added to this improvement the plus of starting from pole, and the handicap for his rival of starting fourth. And this is a lot in MotoGP these days: with the high temperatures of these last races, with so many aerodynamic devices, precision has increased while overtaking maneuvers have been complicated, which have less margin, also due to overheating. that the front tire suffers when it is glued to the tail of a rival. Aware of this, Ducati had planned a race with Bagnaia in the lead and with the maximum number of riders between him and Quartararo, to try to block the Frenchman’s passage. And the strategy went very well, although not with the expected protagonist.
Jack Miller, second on the grid, started more than well, with Bagnaia right behind him. The Italian didn’t need too much time to pass his teammate, and that’s where the planned race began. This on a day plagued by falls. The first was that of Alex Rins, when he was third at the wheel of the Ducati, an incident that left that position to Enea Bastianini (in an emotional weekend for Suzuki, the bad feelings increased with Joan Mir’s fall halfway through the test when he was fourth). Bastianini very soon began to resemble the one he won in Qatar and Austin, the one he waits patiently for and who plays with the tires like no one else to know when to attack. To Miller on lap 12, and then when the two of them were alone, to the number one of his brand. Wait a minute, seeing another Ducati overtake him that drove Bagnaia crazy, who made two mistakes, the second fatal.
At a time when he was heading for another GC blow to Quartararo, after beating him in Jerez, the Italian failed, leaving France with his head down. With this, Bastianini had no choice but to continue with his steady pace, and close a third victory that brings him closer in the standings (third, eight points behind the leader) and that, if he had not already done so, shows that his is not a coincidence. and that is serious.
Espargaró, enthusiastic
The same as Aleix Espargaró, in a circuit where he arrived on the defensive as he considered it inappropriate for his driving style. “It’s incredible: here at Le Mans, where I have always suffered a lot, third consecutive podium and we have cut points from Fabio, who flies here, which is his home”, he reasoned satisfied after enduring the Frenchman’s push, desperate (he and his followers ) by not finding the hole to pass him. “It was the toughest race of the year for me, without a doubt. It wasn’t very competitive, the direction was very closed to me and I was saving the falls all the time, and you have already seen how easy it was to fall. And when I saw Fabio, I knew that he could not leave even a meter ».
A Numantine defense, and without errors, which allowed him to sign his fourth box of 2022 and approach Quartararo to four points, after three races have been completed, those in Portugal, Jerez and this one in France, indicated by the Yamaha man for have a good margin of advantage in case things get complicated in the next big prizes. A result, that of Espargaró, which forces us to take both his and Aprilia’s options very seriously, the bike that is surprising the most this year. On the opposite side follows the Honda, which with Marc Márquez achieved a poor sixth place, 15 seconds behind the winner, taking into account that three riders who were riding ahead of the eight-time world champion crashed.
#Bastianini #Aleix #Espargaró