Andalucia GP- Fabio Quartararo does the double at Jerez!

In a great start to the season for the Petronas Yamaha team, Fabio Quartararo has left Jerez 50 points richer and with a great shot at taking the 2020 MotoGP world title.

Fresh from his win at Jerez the previous weekend and starting from pole position, the Frenchman took the holeshot and was never headed on his way to a comfortable win. The bigger stories were unfolding behind, as two riders had engine failures in podium places and only 13 riders would finish the race.

There were problems in the KTM camp from the off, as Brad Binder hit his future team mate Miguel Oliveira at the first corner, ending the Portuguese’s race and demoting Binder to the rear of the field. He would work his way back to 11th before a violent highside ended his hopes of a good result. As we came around the first lap, Quartararo already had a comfortable lead over Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, and the Pramac duo of Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia. Vinales would blink first, going wide and letting Bagnaia through. Miller would attempt to follow, but would lose the front of his machine on the hot track. Vinales had been overtaken by Bagnaia, Miller and Morbidelli in the space of 3 corners at this point, and was suffering with his breathing.

Morbidelli’s engine would not last the heat, failing on the main straight, while Bagnaia was second and pulling away from Rossi in 3rd at the halfway point, before the heat got the better of his Ducati and went pop, forcing the VR46 Academy Rider duo out of what would have been their best ever finishes in the class. This meant the Monster Energy Yamaha duo were comfortable in the podium positions, and would only swap places on the last two laps as Vinales made a move stick on Rossi.

Elsewhere, Taka Nakagami would uphold Honda pride in 4th, and Joan Mir would salvage a rotten weekend for Suzuki in 5th and Alex Marquez would get himself a solid 8th place.

Full race results can be found here.

Featured images- www.motogp.com