MotoGP: Quartararo Takes First MotoGP Win as Marquez Suffers Major Crash

The 2020 MotoGP World Championship finally got underway in Jerez, as a dramatic weekend climaxed in the Spanish sun. 

Debuting Yamaha’s all-new holeshot device, Maverick Vinales was able to make the holeshot. It was precisely what the #12 needed, to get away in front of Marc Marquez so he could use the corner speed advantage of the Yamaha to break away and stretch the pack without being impeded by riders in front of him. We saw in Malaysia last year how devastating Vinales can be with clear track, and he now had the chance to put on the same exhibition. 

There was another reason Vinales needed the clear track – his choice of front tyre. Whilst the entire field went for the hard option front tyre, the two Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders of Vinales and Valentino Rossi gambled with the soft. The intense ambient and track temperatures in Jerez meant that fresh air would be important for managing the temperature of the front tyre, and with the soft option that would be even more critical. 

Going into turn one on the opening lap it looked as though Fabio Quartararo would be following Vinales, but a late dive from Jack Miller sent the pair of them wide, and Marc Marquez assumed position just off Vinales’ soft option Michelin rear tyre – a selection that was uniform across the grid. 

Having been blisteringly fast in FP4 on Saturday afternoon, Marquez knew he could have an advantage, but in any case he sat behind Vinales for a couple of laps to analyse the pace of the Yamaha rider. When Marquez knew he could go faster, and create some distance between himself and the rest of the pack, he passed Vinales into turn five, completed the move at turn six after some resistance from his compatriot, and set about pulling away.

In hindsight, it could have been another demolition job from Marquez, but events on lap five meant the #93 had to take a slightly alternative route to annihilating the morale of his competitors. 

Having been leading for two laps, Marquez was starting to stretch the field out, and whilst Vinales was trying to hold on, his grip on Marquez was waning. However, Marquez was pushing the limit, and in turn four he broke the limit. 

Of course, for Marc Marquez, folding the front end at 67 degrees of lean is not a ‘game over’ scenario, it is recoverable. And recover he did, hauling the bike back upright before footing his way through the gravel on the outside of turn four and rejoining in 17th. 

Vinales now had the lead back, and could relax the pace a little to ease the strain on his soft front tyre, but behind the pack had sensed an opportunity – Miller, Quartararo, Andrea Dovizioso, Franco Morbidelli, Pol Espargaro and Francesco Bagnaia had all just seen Marquez in the gravel – and probably assumed he was out – and they were right there, so the chase was on. 

The mistakes began creeping in for Vinales, running wide in turn six, then losing the rear and bottoming the front at the final corner which saw him relinquish the lead to Quartararo, and second place to Miller. 

With clear air, Quartararo was able to extend a gap out to Miller, and was soon out of reach of the Australian as he could exploit the corner speed of the YZR-M1. 

Soon, the podium contenders would have to transfer their focus from front to back, as whilst Vinales had been making mistakes and Quartararo had worked his way to the front, Marquez had been fighting back, lapping a second faster than many of the riders inside that podium fight.

It was incredible to watch. Marquez’ performance was like the PG rated version of Argentina 2018, when he had to fight through the pack after a ride through for riding backwards on the grid. Then, it was undone by his inability to control his aggression. This time, however, all of the aggression was there, without any of the mistakes. Every pass was forceful, but clean. Each victim knew Marquez was there, there was never any doubt about that, but by the time they had realised, the reigning champion was off up the road. In the process, Marquez was able to set fastest laps of the race and with ten laps to go it was quite feasible that he would be able to continue his streak of finishing inside the top two in every race since Austin last season. 

However, as Marquez was shaping up a move on Vinales, he used too much throttle, with too much lean angle and too much kerb in turn three, lost the rear end, and it flicked him. There was nothing he could do to save it once it had started, and the consequences were huge. At the moment, it looks like Marquez suffered a broken humerus, and possibly some nerve damage. It is almost certain that Marquez will not race in Jerez next weekend, although what is possible for him is evidently unpredictable. What is certain is that his charge through the field was not deserving of the end result. 

The crash of Marquez let Vinales off the hook, and the Spaniard held onto second place with a gap behind him to Miller, Dovizioso and Morbidelli.

But there was nothing the factory Yamaha could do about his satellite stablemate, Quartararo, who blitzed the field to take a dominant first MotoGP victory, and one that has been a while in the making. Quartararo picked the correct front tyre, and he maximised it, running in the mid-1’38s for most of the race, whereas his rivals drifted in-and-out of the 1’39s. Quartararo’s victory also makes him the first rider other than Marquez to lead the MotoGP World Championship standings since Andrea Dovizioso won in Qatar last season. 

Second place was a decent damage limitation job from Vinales, who in similar situations before might have gone to bed on Sunday night in worse points scenarios. The reality is that only five points separate Vinales from the head of the championship, although it is also true that there is importance – not only for the present but also for the future – in the #12’s ability to beat Quartararo next weekend. 

Andrea Dovizioso was able to beat Jack Miller and Franco Morbidelli in their three-way duel for the final podium spot. It was Dovizioso’s first premier class podium in Jerez, and Ducati’s first since Jorge Lorenzo was third in 2017. Having broken his collarbone two weeks ago, and spent the weekend struggling for pace and to understand how to make the 2020 Michelin tyres work, it was no doubt more than Dovizioso expected from round one. Although Jerez is once again on the schedule for next weekend, after that the series moves to Brno and then Austria for a double-header at the Red Bull Ring. Those are two tracks and three races that should allow Dovizioso to make his mark on this year’s championship, and with such uncertainty surrounding Marquez, this could be the best chance he gets to win the title. 

Fourth place and top independent rider went to Jack Miller, who had a solid ride but was unable to defeat Dovizioso. There was also some contact with Franco Morbidelli at turn six, when Dovizioso passed Miller, and the Australian went wide. Morbidelli tried to cut underneath Miller, but the door was closed. Morbidelli was lucky to stay on, although that put pay to his podium chances and he finally finished in fifth. 

Pol Espargaro completed the top six in a display which showed that KTM are the factory who have made the largest improvement since 2019, as Espargaro finished just 6.9 seconds off the winner. 

Seventh place went to Francesco Bagnaia. The #63 was fast in the beginning of the race but suffered, somewhat typically for the Italian, when the tyres started to wear. From the top five, Bagnaia dropped to seventh by the end of the race, although it was nonetheless a solid ride for the 2018 Moto2 World Champion, who for the first time spent the majority of a race with the fastest riders in the championship. No doubt he learned a lot and will be aiming to put those lessons into practice next weekend in the Andalusian Grand Prix. 

In eighth place was Miguel Oliveira, who had a quiet ride, with much of it spent looking at the rear tyre of Valentino Rossi. Bagnaia’s pace suffered so much in the end of the race that Oliveira missed out on seventh by less than half a second across the line. On the positive side for the Portuguese, the gap behind him was over six seconds to the factory Ducati of Danilo Petrucci, who finished ninth, just under two seconds ahead of the top Honda rider after the crash of Marquez – Takaaki Nakagami who completed the top ten. 

Johann Zarco’s 2020 season got underway with an 11th place, beating the factory Honda of Alex Marquez by over two seconds. 

A mistake early on from Brad Binder cost him a top ten and dropped him to the back. Afterwards he was able to produce pace good enough for the podium, and in doing so climbed back up to 13th by the flag, and supported the evidence of Espargaro that the 2020 KTM RC16 is a serious step forward from the Austrian brand. 

14th over the line was Tito Rabat, whilst Bradley Smith picked up a point on his return to racing, finishing fifteenth and last.

There were only five retirements, in addition to the non-starters Alex Rins – after his qualifying crash and subsequent shoulder injury – and Cal Crutchlow who crashed heavily in warm-up and was ruled out of the race due to neck trauma. Since the race it has also emerged that Crutchlow has suffered a broken scaphoid, which could prove particularly problematic both for Crutchlow and HRC.

The first retirement was Joan Mir, at turn nine on the second lap, before Aleix Espargaro crashed one lap later at turn ten. Valentino Rossi then dropped out with mechanical issues on lap 19 after suffering in the race up to that point with grip problems. The Italian was followed onto the side lines one lap later by Iker Lecuona, before Marquez’ crash ended his staggering recovery.