Moto GP Grand Prix of Qatar. Lusail International Circuit
First qualification of the season for MotoGP was certainly different with Jorge Martin on the Pramac Racing Ducati on pole, with Enea Bastianini P2 and Marc Marquez P3, looking comfortable on the ground up revised Repsol Honda. World Champion from 2021, Fabio Quartararo was P11, wishing his Yamaha had more straight-line speed.
The Race:
Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez just flew away at the start leaving the others to battle it out as Lusail lights bounced off the pristine livery of the 2022 bikes. After the Honda boys it was Binder, Bastianini and Joan Mir heading off Aleix Espargaro, pole sitter Jorge Martin and Fabio Quartararo. As the race settled down in to lap two it was the Repsol Honda bike shining bright with Pol Espargaro in the lead with Marquez P2, Brad Binder P3 and Joan Mir on the resplendent Suzuki P4.
On lap six with 17 to go Marc Marquez went wide in to a right hander allowing Brad Binder through, so a slight change of order, with Pol Espargaro still leading but now Binder P2 and Marquez P3, emerging and fast was Enea Bastianini now P4 and pushing, so much so that on lap seven he went ahead of Marc Marquez.
Lap 12 and Francesco Bagnaia went to undercut Jorge Martin, however as he did so he lost the front end and slid under the luckless Martin, taking them both out of the race. Being the gentleman that he is, Pecco went to see if Jorge was ok and to apologise for what was an unfortunate mistake, not the way either rider wanted to start a new season. Meanwhile Pol Espargaro was still leading Binder and Enea Bastianini.
With four laps to go Pol Espargaro went hot in to turn one as Bastianini presented himself for the corner, Pol ending up going wide, opening the door to Enea Bastianini, who needed no second invitation as he tucked in and took the lead, with Binder now P2 and Pol P3.
Last lap and Enea Bastianini held station and went over the line first, much to the delight of his Gresini team, Brad Binder was second and a gutted Pol Espargaro who had led most the race, third.
Results:
P1. Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing MotoGP/Ducati. P2 Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing/KTM. P3. Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team/Honda.
This was an excellent and emotional win for Enea, the Gresini team losing their owner and mentor Fausto Gresini, who passed away just over a year ago, his wife taking over and running the team now.
We are set for another corker of a season as this first race has mixed up the expectations that many had as to who would be the front runners in 2022!
Author: Martin Northern
Founder of Bike Directory
