Marquez (left) and Espargaro (right) made it a Repsol Honda 1-2. Enea Bastianini wasn’t going to allow Quartararo to have an easy cruise home to the podium though, the Italian was hungry for a second P3 of the season.
Pecco’s crash, closely followed by an Oliveira crash, left Marc Marquez P1, Pol Espargaro P2 and Quartararo, the new World Champion a sensational P3 from P15 on the grid. A new MotoGP™ World Champion was about to be crowned. Straight back up on his feet, Pecco knew. Turn 15, where Miller crashed earlier in the race, saw Bagnaia crash unhurt. Pecco was looking incredibly strong, starting to pull clear of Marc Marquez, before Lap 23 of the Emilia-Romagna GP became the title-deciding lap of 2021. All Pecco could do on home soil was win, but he had an eight-time World Champion hanging onto his coattails. Or so we thought.ġ7 seconds ahead of Quartararo, Bagnaia was holding up his end of the bargain. Baring a disaster from Oliveira, that was as good as it was going to get for Quartararo, with the KTM star eight seconds up the road. And sure enough, with nine to go, Quartararo was ahead of the Aprilia RS-GP and now in P5. With 10 to go, Quartararo sliced his way past Rins for P6, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) next on El Diablo’s radar. Francesco Bagnaia kept a metronomic pace until crashing out in the latter stages of the race. Quartararo, keeping calm, picked his way past teammate Franco Morbidelli and Luca Marini (SKY VR46 Avintia) to climb to P7 on Lap 15 of 27, with Pecco continuing to hold the relentless Marc Marquez at bay. Martin, on Lap 13, crashed at Turn 1 as Quartararo become embroiled in a five-rider battle – fifth to ninth split by less than a second. Meanwhile, Quartararo was up into P10, scrapping with Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing).īy Lap 9, Quartararo was up to ninth. Now, Pecco had Marc Marquez swarming all over his rear wheel. Miller, at Turn 15, was down and out of the race from P2 on Lap 4, Bagnaia’s wingman was no longer able to help the Italian. The top three of Pecco, Miller and Marc Marquez soon found themselves 1.3s clear of Pol Espargaro, who had also dispatched Oliveira, before drama unfolded for one of the Ducatis. Quartararo didn’t make a rapid start, but more importantly, he stayed trouble-free.
Miller grabbed P2 from Oliveira at Turn 4 though, with Marc Marquez then getting the better of Oliveira down into Turn 8. Pecco grabbed the holeshot though as Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) carved his way into P2 from the second row. 2021 MotoGP World Champion.įrom pole position, Bagnaia got a decent getaway but it was teammate Jack Miller who got the best launch from the front row. Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama) passed Quartararo on the last lap to bag his second podium of the season, but the day – and year – belongs to the Frenchman. After Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) crashed out of the race lead in the closing stages of the 2021 Emilia-Romagna MotoGP, the title was decided as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) emerges victorious, with Pol Espargaro securing his maiden podium with Honda. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) is the 2021 MotoGP World Champion.