MotoGP: Quartararo Secures Jerez Double

One week on from Fabio Quartararo’s debut MotoGP victory in Jerez at the Spanish Grand Prix, the premier class riders were in action at Jerez once again for the Andalusian Grand Prix, and it proved a race of attrition. 

Just like one week ago, the race was dominated by Quartararo who, like Tatsuki Suzuki and Enea Bastianini before him in the Andalusian round, hit the front on the first lap and dominated from then on. Bar a failed attempt at a pass on the Frenchman by Maverick Vinales in the final corner on the opening lap, Quartararo was not troubled for the entirety and, in fact, that failed attempt by Vinales was the end of the race at the very front. From there, Quartararo was able to check out, and was almost perfect on the way to his second MotoGP win, and his second of the 2020 season to lead the championship by ten points ahead of round three. 

Behind, though, it was a race of attrition. Miguel Oliveira was out on lap one when he got caught up with Brad Binder after the #33 tangled with Danilo Petrucci in turn one. Binder sat up and the Portuguese had nowhere to go – a shame for the #88 after his best MotoGP qualifying of fifth place on Saturday. 

Binder’s race was also ruined by the incident in the first corner, and although he had a strong pace, a crash at the final corner on lap 12 ended his race for good, and in an ugly way. With Lecuona also out by this point, also a crash in turn 13, what had seemed to be a promising race for KTM had by half-distance turned into something of a disaster. 

This ‘disaster’ was compounded by Pol Espargaro’s poor opening lap, in which he tangled with Danilo Petrucci in the final corner and lost two positions. That compromised his race, and the Spaniard ended up seventh, 11 seconds further back of Quartararo than he was a week ago, and KTM’s only finisher. 

Whilst KTM’s Andalusian Grand Prix was falling apart, so was Maverick Vinales’. The Spaniard should have had the pace to run at the front with Quartararo, but the aforementioned failed attempt at taking the lead in the final corner of the first lap let Valentino Rossi through. 

Although recently Rossi had been no match for any of his Yamaha stablemates on outright speed or race pace, the Italian had made a step on Saturday in the second Jerez MotoGP weekend of the season, and was more comfortable on corner entry than in the Spanish Grand Prix. This would prove crucial for Rossi as the race drew on, but disastrous for Vinales, who could not find a way past. 

Whilst Rossi was able to keep Vinales behind, his pace was not enough to pull away from the Pramac Ducati riders, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, who lurked behind the Monster Energy Yamaha pairing. Eventually, the concertina effect forced something to happen. Rossi was forcing Vinales back into Miller, who was in turn being pushed back into Bagnaia, who seemed quite keen to pass his teammate. 

Sensing the mounting pressure, Miller made an attempt on Vinales at turn six on lap nine, but ran wide and ended up losing out to Bagnaia. The #63 then wasted no time in passing Vinales for third place, and the Spaniard then lost out to Miller and Franco Morbidelli in consecutive corners. Any hope at victory had long gone for the #12, even the podium looked doubtful.

Soon, Bagnaia was pressuring Rossi for second place, but he was not able to pass before Jack Miller crashed at turn nine on lap 11. The Australian had spoken on Saturday evening about how he felt he could be a contender for the championship, although a non-score in the second round is not the best way to try to achieve that. 

Bagnaia passed Rossi one lap later, on lap 12, and quite quickly established a cushion for himself in second place. However, he did not get to relax into that, as a mechanical failure on lap 20 cruelly ended his charge to a first podium, much similar to the way in which Fabio Quartararo was denied a first podium in Jerez in 2019. It was a tough break for Bagnaia, but he proved that he could fight for the rostrum, and make the pace for the rostrum, which, when in search of a contract for next season, is useful. 

Bagnaia’s retirement had promoted Rossi back into second place, and the pressure from Morbidelli behind had by now been replaced by Vinales. Morbidelli had disappeared due to a mechanical failure on the Yamaha, similar to the one Rossi suffered last weekend, and in the same part of the track. Reliability has been noted as a problem for Yamaha in 2020: both factory riders have already dropped one of their five engines for the season, and now presumably Morbidelli will have lost one, too. Additionally, all four Yamaha riders have used four engines so far, whereas every other rider has used two. In a season where they have their best opportunity to win all three championships since 2015, they could do without reliability issues costing them. It will be interesting to see if this problem is fixable over the course of the year for the Iwata factory, otherwise they could be throwing away a golden opportunity. 

But what was worrying for the future of Yamaha was positive for the present for Valentino Rossi, who had now seen two riders who could deny him a first podium since Texas last season drop out through no fault of their own.

However, in the time directly before Bagnaia’s retirement, the #63 Pramac Ducati had been spewing smoke on-gas, and Rossi and Vinales had dropped the pace considerably during that period out of caution. This had brought them closer to the clutches of Takaaki Nakagami. 

Vinales was still suffering with the same problem as the start of the race when he was behind his teammate: he could not out-brake Rossi. 

Eventually, though, Rossi made a mistake. The Italian had been suffering with spinning on the edge of the tyre in the long corners, and Vinales got close on the exit of turn eight. Rossi heard him, and braked late into turn nine, but was too aggressive with the brakes and the rear snapped. The Italian had to release the brake and run wide, and that was enough for Vinales to move through and into second place. 

Rossi did not have the grip to respond to Vinales, who was able to repeat his result from one week ago. It was a frustrating race for Vinales, because he could have challenged Quartararo if he didn’t make the mistake at the start. But that is the crucial difference between the two at the moment: Vinales is making mistakes and Quartararo is not. 

Although Rossi missed the grip to go back after Vinales, he did have enough to hold off Nakagami and keep hold of third place, his first podium in 465 days. For a 41-year-old who has traditionally suffered in hotter, low-grip conditions in recent times, to do it in these conditions was impressive. 

Similarly impressive was the fourth place of Takaaki Nakagami, who took a big step this weekend with the 2019 Honda. The Japanese rider proved that in the absence of Marc Marquez and without a fully fit Cal Crutchlow, Honda still have a rider who can deliver a top result, and this was his best in MotoGP to date. 

Slightly more disappointing was the race of Joan Mir, who was fairly anonymous for the duration. The Spaniard finished fifth in the end, five seconds ahead of Andrea Dovizioso who could only manage sixth after qualifying 14th. The Italian will be hoping for better results in the upcoming races, which should suit him and the Ducati more – although when you see Bagnaia and Miller fighting for the podium, Bagnaia denied only by reliability, you have to say that the fault lies more at the door of Dovizioso than the bike this weekend. 

As mentioned before, Pol Espargaro finished seventh, and was just under two seconds ahead of Alex Marquez who took his best finish in MotoGP with eighth. Johann Zarco was ninth, a further four seconds back of Marquez, and 3.5 seconds ahead of a rather heroic Alex Rins. The Spaniard salvaged six points with his week-old humerus and shoulder injury, and rounded out the top ten.

11th place went to Tito Rabat, ahead of Bradley Smith who was the last rider to finish on the lead lap in 12th. Cal Crutchlow was the final classified rider, taking home three points for 13th place, just a week on from his broken scaphoid. 

Aside from the aforementioned retirements for the KTM riders, Morbidelli and the Pramac Racing duo; Aleix Espargaro crashed out on lap eight and Danilo Petrucci went down on lap 11 – both of whom will be more than glad to see the back of Jerez after two difficult races at the circuit.