Qatar GP Champion, Bastianini Celebrates First Victory In MotoGP

Illustration (doc. Antara)

DOHA - Ducati racer, Enea Bastianini, managed to prove himself as one of the serious challengers to MotoGP this season. After successfully recording the fastest time in the pre-season test session, at Sepang, last month, the Italian racer again showed his speed after securing the second starting position in the Qatar GP qualifying round.

Bastianini appeared competitive in the 22-round race at the Losail International Circuit. Despite opening the game with a bad start that made his position slump, Bastianini did not lose his momentum of speed and was able to maintain the performance of his tires to successfully win the race by 0.346 seconds ahead of Brad Binder, from the KTM team, and Pol Espargaro, from the Repsol Honda team.

"It's difficult for me to speak at this time. I dedicate this victory to Fausto," said Bastianini, after the race, as reported by the official MotoGP website and quoted by Antara, Sunday, March 6.

As is known, Fausto himself was the late founder of the Gresini team who last season died due to complications from COVID19.

In this race, Pramac Racing's Jorge Martin was one of the favorites but failed to make a perfect run from pole, and even nearly collided with another rider. This condition then paved the way for Marc Marquez to lead the race towards the first corner.

In less than a lap, Pol Espargaro, who started from P6, took the lead from his Honda teammates and brought two RC213V motorcycles, which have undergone radical changes this season, to show off from the start of the race.

On lap 6, Brad Binder overtook Marquez who was wide at the first corner and Enea Bastianini passed Joan Mir and soon overtook Marquez to enter the podium zone.

Bastianini, with nine laps remaining, pushed hard and found space to overtake Binder for second place and catch Espargaro who was 1.2 seconds ahead.

The Italian, who had tasted the sweetness of two MotoGP podiums in his debut year last season, has further reduced his gap on the Honda rider. Utilizing the power of Ducati on the main straight, Bastianini beat Espargaro who then went wide into the first corner runoff with five laps remaining.

Espargaro's mistake paved the way for a phenomenal Binder to claim runner-up for KTM after the Honda rider failed to restore his position. Knocked out from the race for the podium, Marquez defended desperately from the onslaught of Aleix Espargaro, but had to give up on the Aprilia rider who passed him in the last six laps.

Aleix Espargaro brought home a positive result for the Aprilia team in fourth place and Marquez had to be content with completing the top five. Suzuki duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins finished P6 and P7 ahead of Johann Zarco from the Pramac team.

Meanwhile, Yamaha fell short in Qatar when Quartararo, who had been complaining about the top speed of the M1 bike all weekend, was only able to finish P9 more than 10 seconds away from the race winner.

Not even 10 laps, Jack Miller had to return to the Ducati garage and finish his first race of the season. Ducati had to lose another two of their riders when on lap-12, Francesco Bagnaia crashed after losing front grip while taking the first corner, triggering a collision with Martin who was also thrown into the gravel.

Rookie Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez, Miguel Oliveira also failed to finish the race after falling on the track.

In the Moto2 class, Celestino Vietti dominated the intermediate category for Valentino Rossi's VR46 team and claimed his first win.

Vietti previously had the right to move up to first starting position late in qualifying on Saturday when Sam Lowes lost pole to P3 as his best lap crossed the track limit.

In his sophomore year, Vietti converted that pole into a controlled display that ended six seconds ahead of Aron Canet. Lowes claimed a place on the podium with a dramatic maneuver at the last corner, past Augusto Fernandez.

Meanwhile, Mario Aji, who represented Indonesia in the Moto3 event, finished his first race in this category by finishing P19 after starting from P25.

Andrea Migno of the Rivacold Snipers team celebrated victory for the first time in his five-year career after beating Sergio Garcia of the GasGas team by a margin of 0.037 seconds after Ayumu Sasaki suffered a problem with his fairing on lap 11 while leading the race.

Kaito Toba who completed the podium for CIP Green Power after holding Deniz Oncu.