Google News Australian MotoGP: Quartararo crashes out as Bastianini defeats Bagnaia
by FARUK IMAMOVIC | VIEW 717
High tension in MotoGP! Alex Rins celebrated his first win of the season in Australia. Fabio Quartararo gave away the championship lead. Change of leadership in the MotoGP World Championship! Francesco Bagnaia (It) took first place from Fabio Quartararo (Fr) two races before the end of the season and is now 14 points ahead of the Yamaha rider.
This is the result of the turbulent Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Quartararo threaded between his rivals as he ran wide and dropped to 22nd place. “I braked, the back of the bike lifted and I had Marini in front so I had to go wide,” Quartararo said.
“That was my mistake and it was not easy to recover. I think I overtook 4-5 riders, but I was also trying to save the tyres,” he said. “Then I pushed way too much in the entry [of turn 2], it was not a big difference in the corner speed but just out of [turn] one I was much faster than I used to be”.
100th podium for Marquez
Alex Rins secured victory in Australia. For the Spanish Suzuki rider, it was the first success of 2022. Second place went to eight-time champion Marc Marquez, who was on the podium for the first time this season and for the 100th time in his career.
"I enjoyed the race and gave everything I had. We're getting better step by step," said the superstar. Third went to Bagnaia, who had been in the lead until the last lap but was eventually overtaken by Rins and Marquez. The new World Cup leader could live with that, as his World Cup rival Quartataro remained without points.
The Frenchman dropped back to 22nd place early on after a mistake. After another blunder, he fell and retired.
Quartararo says the only issues he’s currently facing are technical
“2020 was [because of] mentally and technically, and now I don't feel mentally like I’m over-thinking too much or not.
So mentally I don't feel it’s about 2020,” he said. I’m just trying to do my best and I'm overriding a little bit too much and the risk of having a mistake is really close. So that's what happened today." The penultimate Grand Prix of the season will take place in Malaysia on October 23. The final will take place on November 6th in Valencia (Sp).