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Fabio Quartararo rode to an emotional victory in MotoGP’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello ahead of KTM’s Miguel Oliviera and Suzuki’s Joan Mir who finished third.
The Italian Grand Prix, held at the stunning Mugello Circuit which is situated in Italy’s beautiful Tuscan hillside, played host to the sixth round of the 2021 MotoGP Championship.
The track sweeps through the Northern Italian countryside and is a rider favourite. Corners through the middle sectors – the Casanova and Savelli chicane followed by the sweeping Arrabbiata’s offer a thrilling challenge to the riders.
Starting Grid
Fabio Quartararo took his fourth consecutive pole position of the season as he set a 1:45.187 in Saturday’s qualifying session. The Frenchman was joined on the front row by his Championship rival Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac’s Johann Zarco who lined up in third.
Jack Miller, who was rewarded with a contract extension by Ducati following his latest back-to-back wins, started in fifth. The Aussie lined up on the second row of the grid with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in fourth and KTM’s Brad Binder who qualified sixth.
Eight-time champion Marc Marquez could only find the pace for 11th. However, the Spaniard was just under a second behind Quartararo’s pole time showing how competitive the MotoGP grid is this year.
The most successful rider at Mugello, Valentino Rossi, qualified 19th. The Italian has taken seven poles and won on seven occasions which has seen incredible scenes follow with his passionate fanbase, who unfortunately have been forced to watch from home this year due to the event being held behind closed doors.
As It Happened
Before the race, the MotoGP grid held a minute’s silence in memory of Swiss Moto3 rider Jason Dupasquier who tragically passed away on Sunday morning aged 19 after an accident at the end of Saturday’s Moto3 qualifying session.
At the end of the warm-up lap, Enea Bastianini crashed on his way to the gird and retired from the race. He broke hard trying to avoid Zarco, who was running slowly whilst engaging his ‘hole-shot device’, forcing the Esponsorama rider into a ‘stoppie’ which sent the Italian over his handlebars, luckily walking away.
After the grid was held momentarily whilst Bastainini’s bike was recovered, the lights went out and pole-sitter Quarararo got an excellent start, however, Bagnaia led into turn one.
Miguel Oliviera made up the most positions in the opening corners as he moved up to third after starting seventh. On the other side of the fortunes, Aleix Espargaro, who levelled Aprillia’s best-ever MotoGP qualifying result dropped from fourth to ninth.
On lap two, Marc Marquez attempted an overtake on Brad Binder, however, the duo tangled and the Repsol Honda rider crashed out for the second time in as many races.
Sepang Racing Team’s Franco Morbidelli sat up to avoid Marquez’s bike and despite an excursion through the gravel trap, was able to re-join and continue with his race.
Corners later, leader Bagnaia clipped the kerb on the entry of the second Arribiatta at turn nine and lost the front. This promoted Quartararo into the lead, dealing a sucker-punch blow to the Italian’s Championship hopes.
Over the line, Zarco blitzed past Quartararo into the lead of the race. The Pramac rider utilised his Ducati’s straight-line speed down Mugello’s kilometre-long main straight as he claimed first position.
Quartararo re-claimed the lead into the thrilling Casanova section of the track at turn six and pulled away to try and minimise the chance of being overtaken by his compatriot down the straight.
Unfortunately for the Frenchman, Zarco replicated the overtake to regain the lead, however, the Yamaha rider made a swift reply and was back in the lead at turn three and started to form a comfortable gap to the Pramac rider.
On lap five, a battle for fourth started to emerge between Mir, Miller and Alex Rins. After laps of jostling, it was Rins in fourth ahead of Miller and Mir, who were starting to come under pressure from Brad Binder who was seventh.
Three laps later, Mir made a move on Miller into the tricky turn 10. Binder sneakily followed the Suzuki past Miller as the Australian fell to seventh.
Zarco started to come under pressure from Oliviera, as Mir and Rins started to close in on the podium sitters, poising a fascinating finale.
On lap 16, it was Oliviera who made the first move, the Portuguese rider slipped past Zarco into second at turn 11 with the Frenchman starting to struggle.
The very next lap, Mir replicated Oliviera’s move as the Suzuki rider broke into the podium places. Zarco started to come under further pressure from Rins in fifth.
Halfway through lap 18, Rins overtook Zarco into the sweeping Casanova and Sevelli corners as the Spaniard took advantage of the Ducati rider’s struggles.
Zarco managed to re-claim fourth, however handed the place back to Rins on a golden platter as the Frenchman outbroke himself into turn one at San Donato.
At the final corner of lap 19, fourth place Rins lost the front and was sent sliding into the gravel for the fourth race in succession and was forced to retire from the race.
On the next lap, Japanese rider Takaaki Nakagami was the next to retire as he crashed out of the race at the fast turn 13 and 14 chicane.
Jorge Martin’s replacement, Michele Pirro, dropped a handful of places after he ran wide into the gravel trap at turn two as he fell from ninth to 14th. This promoted Rossi up to 11th with the Italian eyeing up Iker Lecuona who sat in tenth.
Rossi was able to overtake Lecuona, and after a well-contested battle – the Doctor pipped Lecuona to a tenth place finish, the Italian’s best aboard his SRT machine.
In the end, it was Fabio Quartararo who breezed to victory, ahead of Miguel Oliviera in second and Joan Mir in third.
Rounding out the top 10 was Zarco, Binder, Miller, Aleix Espargaro, Danilo Petrucci and Valentino Rossi.
An emotional Fabio Quartararo paid a beautiful tribute to Jason Dupasquier by proudly holding the Swiss flag in parc-ferme and on the podium, as well as pointing to the sky when he received his winner’s trophy.
In the riders’ standings, Quartararo extended his lead in the Championship to 24 points ahead of his fellow Frenchman Johann Zarco, who is two points ahead of Bagnaia who agonisingly crashed out of the race on lap two.
What’s next?
The MotoGP paddock heads straight to the Circuit de Catalunya for the Catalan round of the Championship, which plays host to round seven of the season, where Quartararo will be hoping to extend his lead at the summit of the riders’ standings.
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