MotoGP™: ‘Win 3’ for Quartararo!

Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha Petronas SRT) collected his third win of the 2020 MotoGPTM World Championship in Spain, ahead of Team SUZUKI ECSTAR’s Joan Mir and Alex Rins. Cool weather for the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya (Round 9) saw the majority of the field start on soft MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear, while eight riders improved on last year’s fastest race lap. 

Quartararo started from second on the grid but spent the afternoon’s first five laps in third spot, behind pole-winner Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha Petronas SRT) and Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) who was contesting his 350th grand prix.

Drawing maximum advantage from his soft MICHELIN Power Slicks, the Frenchman succeeded in easing past the Italian ace on the sixth of the race’s 24 laps, before emerging in front three laps later when he also posted his best race lap with a time of 1m40.142s – only marginally short of the record (1m40.021s) posted by Jorge Lorenzo for Ducati in 2018.

From that point on, Quartararo was able to focus on building up the handsome margin that would lay the foundations for his third victory of the campaign.

In his wake, Mir and Rins produced a spirited comeback as the former fought his way from eighth on the grid to second at the flag thanks to an assertive second half to the race which earned him his fourth top-three finish of the year, and his third in a row. A similarly strong late showing by team-mate Rins deprived Morbidelli (4th) of third spot with two laps remaining and enabled Suzuki to celebrate its first double podium since 2007.

Fifth and sixth places ended up in the hands of Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia.

In the course of the weekend, Michelin’s tyres contributed to lap-time improvements in every practice session compared with 2019 and, with the air and ground temperatures standing at 17°C and 20°C respectively for the start, all but five of the riders opted for soft MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear. No fewer than eight riders bettered the fastest race lap clocked by Marc Marquez in 2019.

Quartararo’s win takes him back to the top of the provisional Riders’ standings on 108 points, chased by Mir (100) and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Viñales (90).

Next round: SHARK Helmets Grand Prix de France, Le Mans (October 9-11).