There were yawns among the fans who packed the pelouse of the Jerez circuit because they had arrived before dawn and, seven hours later, nothing was happening on the asphalt.
The sun, the empty refrigerators, the race... everything invited a nap.
But Marc Marquez appeared.
And the early morning made sense again: how to miss his two wild, risky, own overtaking, to a hallucinated Jack Miller.
The six-time MotoGP champion is not who he was, he is far from who he was, but he is still capable of gracing one of the most unremarkable races of the season.
Luck has the public of him.
Even if he finished fourth and even if he finished upset.
Because his two movements, the only ones among the leading riders, were not even worth the podium: that's his penalty.
From the start, Márquez was in a group of three alongside Miller and Aleix Espargaró and, for the first time this year, he felt good.
His posture was natural again, his control of the Honda was again optimal: everything was ready for him to return to a drawer.
Until a mistake took away that honor.
Trailing Miller for many laps, he overtook him with five laps to go and moved up to third, but soon after a slip in a corner nearly took him to the ground and lost his place.
Aleix Espargaró took advantage of it, who overtook him and the Australian, and escaped for the podium.
Marquez himself regretted it, although he was still able to beat Miller again on the last lap.
Victory of Bagnaia
The fans applauded him, especially his fan club, back on the circuits, and his rivals congratulated him.
Everyone knew that Márquez had put the show between the routine.
Because, in reality, the race was not very bright.
From pole 'Pecco' Bagnaia demarró and Fabio Quartararo tried to follow him without success.
As happened several times last year, both proved to be the fastest, but they did not coincide, collide, or fight at any time and the test ended as is.
Bagnaia, first, Quartararo, second and Aleix Espagaró, third.
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Bagnaia's return after the divorce with Ducati in preseason is important for the World Cup, but it may already be too late.
Despite the many remaining races, the Italian is 34 points behind Quartararo, who is already more in the lead, with Aleix Espargaró seven points behind.
Two riders well placed in the general classification, Álex Rins or Johan Zarco, crashed and cleared the horizon for him.
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