Doha (AFP)

First French double in the premier motorcycle speed category!

Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) won the Doha (Qatar) Grand Prix, second round of the MotoGP season, ahead of Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) on Sunday.

In addition to the unprecedented sporting performance, we will remember the complicity between the two pilots, hilarious on the podium, screaming the Marseillaise at the top of their lungs with Zarco as conductor.

To find two Frenchmen in the top 3 in the premier category before them, you have to go back to ... 1954 in France, in Reims, for the victory of Pierre Monneret ahead of Jacques Collot, 3rd.

The Spanish debutant Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac), who had signed the pole position, completes the podium (his first in the elite for his second GP) on the Losail circuit.

Author of a "very mature" race, in his own opinion, Martin led up to four laps from the finish, when Quartararo passed him first.

Then Zarco did the same in the last few meters.

"I didn't win much (three times last season in MotoGP, editor's note) but this victory, wow," blew the N.20, who intends to celebrate it with ... a McDonald's.

"I came up from 8th place in the middle of the race. It's an incredible moment, I always dreamed of winning in Qatar!"

- Zarco championship leader -

The icing on the cake, Zarco (thanks to his two 2nd places in the two inaugural GPs in Qatar) leads the drivers' standings with 40 points, four lengths ahead of Quartararo, tied for 2nd on points with his Spanish teammate Maverick Vinales.

If this remains anecdotal so early in the season, it is very positive knowing that the two men changed teams during the winter.

"Coming here for pre-season testing 35 days ago, I wasn't expecting that," admitted the leader, promoted from Ducati-Avintia to Ducati-Pramac.

"I'm leading the championship but I still have things to learn and to better control. If I succeed, I will be able to have fun on other circuits," he said.

"We worked a lot during the winter to reach this goal", added Quartararo, 5th last week for a first race with Yamaha which he considers to have managed "like a beginner".

The Spaniards Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Maverick Vinales (Yamaha), winner of the GP of Qatar on the same track last Sunday, finished at the foot of the podium.

Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), defending champion, Spaniard Joan Mir (Suzuki), South African Brad Binder (KTM), Australian Jack Miller (Ducati) and Spaniard Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) complete the tightest Top 10 in history (5 sec 382/1000).

This is also the case for the Top 15, with a gap of 8 sec 928/1000!

- Rossi in slow motion -

The Italians of Yamaha-SRT, on the other hand, still disappointed.

Defending runner-up Franco Morbidelli is only 12th and legend Valentino Rossi 16th after having achieved the worst qualifying of his GP career, finishing 21st and penultimate.

As a reminder, the Spaniard Marc Marquez (Honda), who is still treating a fractured right arm suffered last summer, is forfeited at least for the first two races of the season.

In Moto3, the Spanish rookie Pedro Acosta (KTM), 16, created a sensation by winning for his second race only in the World ... after starting from the pit lane following a penalty!

How did he get there?

"I don't know," replied the one who was 2nd last week.

"When you work with the best, you can do it."

"After my penalty yesterday, I was seeing a little all black, he admitted. But this morning, when I got up, I said to my assistant: man, we can do this."

And Acosta did it well!

In Moto2, Briton Sam Lowes (Kalex) did it again, a week after winning the Qatar GP.

After a month in the Gulf, MotoGP will now return to Europe, starting with Portimao (Portugal) from April 16 to 18.

© 2021 AFP