Barcelona (AFP)
Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha-SRT) won the MotoGP of Catalonia on Sunday and regained the lead in the world championship ahead of Spaniard Joan Mir (Suzuki) who finished second in the race.
Quartararo dominated the Grand Prix and withstood the return of the Suzuki's Joan Mir and Alex Rins in the final laps.
Leader of the championship before this 8th round of the season, the Italian Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) fell in the first round, from the second corner, at the same time as the French Yohann Zarco (Ducati-Avintia).
As for veteran Italian Valentino Rossi, he crashed on his own at the end of the race when he was in second place and could have climbed on the 200th podium of his career.
"My rear tire was completely destroyed and we knew the Suzuki's were very strong," Quartararo said after his victory.
It is his third victory of the season but he had experienced difficult weeks recently, failing to record good results in the last races.
He now has eight points ahead of Mir while there are still 7 events to go.
"We had a very good race. I missed one lap because I could see that Fabio was losing ground but I couldn't catch him," said Mir who, even though he is in second place in the ranking of the world championship, has never won a race in the premier class.
© 2020 AFP