Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation and Lusail International Circuit (LIC) President Abdulrahman bin Abdullatif Al-Mannai, LIC CEO Abdulaziz Ali Al-Mohannadi with Qatar MotoGP winner Marco Bezzecchi, runner-up Marc Marquez and third-placed Raul Fernandez.
Lusail, Qatar: Marco Bezzecchi bounced back from his sprint disappointment with a clinical performance to win the MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar in front of 27,000 spectators at floodlit Lusail International Circuit yesterday.
The victory for the Aprilia Racing rider meant Ducati’s Marc Marquez will have to wait at least another two weeks to clinch his eighth premier-class world title.
Needing a victory and hoping his closest title rival Jorge Martin finished outside the points to seal the championship in Lusail, Marquez finished second in the 22-lap race dominated by a resurgent Bezzecchi.
Martin, Bezzecchi’s team-mate, finished seventh as he continued his comeback from a broken right wrist, keeping his title hopes alive.
Moto2 winner Daniel Holgado (centre) celebrates on the podium with second placed Ivan Ortola and third place winner Alex Escrig.
Pole-sitter Bezzecchi, who retired from Saturday’s sprint following a collision with Marquez, was in superb form yesterday but remains 74 points behind the championship leader.
Third in the standings, the Italian is virtually out of contention for his maiden world title, with the gap matching the maximum number of points available in the remaining races. However, Bezzecchi is now in contention to overtake Martin for second place in the championship standings.
Marquez holds a 60-point lead over Martin and will need to outscore his rival by two points in the Grand Prix of Portugal sprint in a fortnight to secure the title, with the Valencia finale remaining after Portimao.
“I was confident in my strategy today. My strategy was just try to manage the race the first five laps,” said Marquez.
“I saw that in one part of the race I was super fast, but I knew that riding on that riding style, I was eating the front tyre.”
Marquez lost second place to Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez at Turn 2 on the opening lap after Bezzecchi took the holeshot from pole position. He also dropped behind Pedro Acosta on lap three but regained second at the start of lap six when tyre pressure issues forced the KTM rider to drop back.
“Third position was (would have been) okay, but I saw that Fernandez was struggling, so you never know, I attack and four points more,” said Marquez.
Fernandez finished third, just over half a second behind Marquez, while his Trackhouse Aprilia team-mate Ai Ogura took fourth place.
Bezzecchi, meanwhile, was untouchable, beating Marquez by 3.083 seconds to claim his sixth Grand Prix victory of the season.
“It was a wonderful race for me,” he said.
“I was very motivated after yesterday, that was a sprint that I felt I could have fought for the victory. It’s something that can happen in racing. But, anyway, this gave me an extra push to try to bounce back today and make the perfect start everything well. I’m glad that I was able to make it and super thankful to the team and Aprilia. It was good.”
Aprilia Racing’s Marco Bezzecchi (right) rides during the MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar. Pics: AFP
With his title hopes fading, Bezzecchi said: “I mean, I need a miracle, but it looks like this season [there have been] no miracles for me. But it’s good to have an opportunity to be fighting with them. In the end, Jorge [Martin] and Marc are both super, super good riders. Just to fight with them is good.”
Martin was unable to repeat his impressive sprint performance, when he climbed from 11th on the grid to challenge Marquez for the lead before finishing third.
However, making his first appearance since breaking his right wrist, the Spaniard earned applause from his team after keeping his title hopes alive.
Enea Bastianini finished fifth ahead of Acosta, with Fabio Di Giannantonio taking eighth place, followed by Johann Zarco in ninth and Iker Lecuona in 10th.
