Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Jose Breton / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 20:00 p.m., April 30, 2023

Francesco Bagnaia won the Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in MotoGP on Sunday. A victory that allows the Italian biker to regain the lead of the championship. The French Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo missed the meeting.

Double blow for Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) in Jerez! The reigning world champion won the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the MotoGP season, and took the championship lead on Sunday in Jerez. The Turin native, looking for redemption after falling in the last two races, struck a blow in the Andalusian heat by taking his 13th victory in the premier class, the day after his second place in the sprint.

Starting from fifth place, 'Pecco' Bagnaia made the superiority of his Desmosedici speak to stun his opponents: he quickly positioned himself behind the two KTMs of Jack Miller and Brad Binder, before overtaking them. He first overtook the Australian shortly after the halfway point, before erasing the South African with four laps to go. This time, the Italian made no mistakes, resisting Binder's desperate attacks on the final lap well, and crossed the finish line first.

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22 lengths ahead

Arriving in Spain 11 lengths behind Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati-VR46) in the world championship standings, Bagnaia will enter the next race, the France Grand Prix at Le Mans in two weeks, 22 lengths ahead of his compatriot, who crashed on Sunday, and 25 ahead of Binder. KTM also had a successful weekend in Spain by placing its two riders on the podium in the sprint on Saturday, with the bonus of Binder's victory, and also of the race on Sunday.

Quite the opposite of Yamaha, which again disappointed on a circuit that is usually successful for the Japanese team. Two weeks after clinching his first podium of the season in Austin, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo struggled all weekend. Only 16th in qualifying, the worst result of his career since his debut in the premier class in 2019, and 12th in the sprint on Saturday, the 2021 world champion limited the damage on Sunday by taking 10th place.

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Quartararo falls

At the first start, Fabio Quartararo crashed at the second corner of the first lap. The 2021 world champion, had remained a few minutes on the ground before getting up and leaving limping. After contact with Bezzecchi, the Niçois had slipped and dragged in his fall the unfortunate Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia-RNF), who was hit in the shoulder and forced to retire.

After quickly returning to the Yamaha pit, the Frenchman was able to take the second start, but received a penalty of a "long lap", a detour to take in a corner. Unfortunately, he came out too wide by doing it and had to do one again, losing valuable places when he had made a good start. In the standings, 'El Diablo', who had pushed Saturday a rant against his team where "it lacks competent people" according to him, is already relegated to 47 lengths of Bagnaia.

The other Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) will also leave Andalusia with regrets. While he had a great race in fifth position after starting from eighth place, he fell with eight laps to go. The Avignon native thus saw the opportunity to score points in the world championship disappear, where he dropped to ninth place, 41 units behind the leader.