MotoGP: Quartararo dominates Mugello, Bagnaia crashes out

The sixth round of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship took place at the legendary Mugello circuit in Italy. Fabio Quartararo started from pole position, with the new front holeshot device mounted to his Yamaha.

The drama began before the race, as Enea Bastianini was caught out by Johann Zarco slowing on the exit of the final corner on the warm up lap. Zarco was pumping his brakes for temperature, and Bastianini careered into the back of him. It was unfortunate, a bit embarrassing and the end of Bastianini’s first premier class Italian Grand Prix.

Yamaha’s new front holeshot device worked well, but the relatively long drag to turn one gave Francesco Bagnaia the chance to pull alongside Fabio Quartararo and out-brake him into the first turn. Quartararo now had a race on. Until he didn’t, which was at turn nine on the next lap when Bagnaia crashed, touching the outside white line between the two Arrabbiate and folding the front. 

It wasn’t completely over for Quartararo. He still had to contend with Johann Zarco, who was able to use the Ducati’s power to keep himself in victory contention for a couple of laps. But soon his compatriot’s pace became overwhelming, and Quartararo set off into the Italian sunset.

It was a first victory from pole in Mugello since Marc Marquez did it in 2014 when he fought Jorge Lorenzo, and Valentino Rossi finished third. The last time a Yamaha won from pole in Tuscany, it was 2008, and Rossi won. Things are much different now, it’s a new time. 

The victory of course meant 25 points and, since Bagnaia was out and neither Zarco nor Miller were on the podium, it also meant an extension of Quartararo’s championship lead to 24 points over Zarco, and 26 over the more likely threat, Bagnaia. Had he not suffered with arm pump in Jerez, and had it not rained in Le Mans, the gap would likely be much larger. But this is reality, nothing is perfect and Quartararo is only now able to turn his potential into a sizeable points lead. The reality is he could have demolished the field as he did today, in Mugello, in both Jerez and Le Mans, and with Barcelona up next – where he took his first grand prix victory in Moto2, his first MotoGP podium, and where he won last year – it is likely to continue like this. 

That doesn’t paint a very pretty picture for the championship. The only riders who had comparable pace to Quartararo today were Bagnaia, who crashed, and the Suzuki pair of Joan Mir and Alex Rins. Unfortunately for them, they aren’t very good at qualifying – still. And Alex Rins crashed – again – which doesn’t help either his championship position or his position at the negotiating table. Four non-finishes in a row is not good enough for a factory rider, it’s not good enough for a privateer Moto3 rider. But the reality at the moment is that you would be more surprised to see Alex Rins finish in Barcelona than crash.

While Rins crashed, Mir was able to finish third. Except today third was actually second. This was because the FIM MotoGP Stewards are incapable of seeing reason beyond black and white readings of ridiculous rules. The “Augusto Fernandez-Fabio Di Giannantonio, Misano 2019” rule is a particular one. It means that if you are close with another rider behind you on the last lap, and you touch a part of the green-painted sections of the run-off areas, you will be docked one position. We saw this in the Moto2 race, where it cost Joe Roberts a podium. Roberts had run off the edge of the kerb on the exit of turn five, Borgo San Lorenzo, on the last lap while battling with Marco Bezzecchi. The naked eye could not distinguish where Roberts had operated illegally with the placement of his tyres, but evidently the eyes of the FIM MotoGP Stewards are not naked. 

The same happened in the MotoGP race, this time to Miguel Oliveira. The KTM rider had made a great race, starting from seventh and fighting for the podium throughout, helped by his affinity with the Mugello circuit – where he won his first grand prix in 2015 in Moto3, and where he won in 2018 in Moto2 – and also a new chassis from KTM which aided turning and traction. Mir was stuck for many laps behind Oliveira, and that included the final tour. Oliveira made almost the exact same line as Roberts had done on the final lap of the Moto2 race, and it cost him second place, handing it to Mir. It was a ridiculous penalty, but justified by the rules. Perhaps this is a rule that needs wiping, or perhaps it needs rethinking to one that is less binary. Oliveira touched the green with his rear tyre, for sure – Mir’s on-board footage proved that. But, like with Roberts and Bezzecchi in Moto2, Oliveira’s (minor) discrepancy was not a hindrance to Mir making a pass on the last lap, the Spaniard simply was not close enough. 

In the end, though, Oliveira took KTM’s first podium of the season, and his first top 10 of 2021. It had been a difficult campaign to this point for Oliveira, but perhaps this new chassis can see him return to fighting for the top positions regularly.

Oliveira’s penalty was of no consequence to Zarco, who was fourth, having seemingly run out of rear grip with seven or eight laps to go. But then he seemingly rediscovered that grip after Rins crashed, with four laps to go. It was not enough, though, to reclaim a spot on the rostrum, but he did retake second in the championship by two points from his Ducati stablemate, Bagnaia. 

Behind Zarco was Brad Binder, confirming the progress this new chassis has brought KTM, despite getting caught up with Marc Marquez early on. Marquez tried to force Binder out in turn two, Binder refused, there was contact, and Marquez fell. It all seemed rather unnecessary. Marquez’ bike then blocked the path of an evasive Franco Morbidelli, who took to the gravel and, for the second time in two races, had his race ruined by an incident involving a Repsol Honda. Although this time it was assuredly not the Italian’s fault. 

So Marquez was out, which was probably quite inconsequential for Marquez, Honda, and the race, as the Honda had proven as uncompetitive as expected in Italy. They have a lot of work to do, and so does Marquez’ damaged and under-trained right shoulder.

Jack Miller completed a dismal day for Ducati with sixth. Despite being on a hat-trick coming into Mugello, neither the Jerez win, nor the Le Mans was entirely convincing for Miller’s long-term ambitions. While he deserved both wins, they were asterisked by the problems of Quartararo and/or Yamaha. So, it was not necessarily expected that the #43 would be fighting for the win in Italy, but still there was talk of three Desmosedicis being on the podium in Mugello for the first time, and four Ducati wins in a row a their home race. Instead, their fastest rider crashed; their second-fastest rider was ridden into and was slower than the inline-fours and, worryingly, one V4; and Miller was only fast enough for sixth. They even finished dead last with Luca Marini, who was 12.4 second behind his compatriot, the aforementioned Morbidelli, at the flag, and 50 seconds off the win. A tough day, then, for the Bologna brand.

Arguably, it was not the day Aprilia expected, either. In his media debrief with Dorna’s Amy Reynolds yesterday, Aleix Espargaro hinted that a podium might not be impossible. However, it was, and he finished seventh. But, considering he is less than two weeks on from arm pump surgery, and has had to have that arm drained multiple times, seventh is a good result. Context is everything, which is a lesson the Stewards could learn.

Maverick Vinales’ race was over on Friday afternoon when he lost the feeling of Friday morning. A similar story with Vinales, who finished an anonymous eighth that was conditioned by his 13th place on the grid, that itself was conditioned by his poor response to Marquez’ Q1 strategy. But, for those worrying that Vinales has been abandoned by the laws of racing which that state new dads do all the winning, Cal Crutchlow finished 15th in Austria 2016, and then won in Brno. 

Danilo Petrucci was ninth, for his second top 10 of the season, ahead of Valentino Rossi, for his first top 10 of the season. Retirement is a word related to Rossi now more than ever, but it is entirely possible that the problems he is facing have coincidental timing. Whatever the case, even someone with Rossi’s passion for riding motorcycles quite quickly must be struggling to find the enjoyment in 10th place being seen as a ‘good result’, or ‘progress’, considering his past. Again, context. 

Iker Lecuona missed out on a top 10 to Rossi, having seemingly run out of grip at the end. The Spaniard was ahead of his compatriot, Pol Espargaro, who had a dreadful race ending in 12th place. 

Michele Pirro was on for a top 10 before he took a trip through the gravel on the inside of turn five, having entered turn four too quickly. Jorge Martin is scheduled to be back in action in Barcelona, so we probably won’t see Pirro again until Misano, where he will probably qualify on the third row. 

Alex Marquez was another struggling Honda rider, finishing down in 14th, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori who took the final point.

Franco Morbidelli had only Luca Marini behind him at the flag, meaning – far from a dream all-Italian top three, what we actually got was an all-Italian bottom three. Thankfully, there were no fans there (probably) to see that. 

Takaaki Nakagami was the only rider to crash that hasn’t been discussed already. It was quite the amateur error from the #30, who touched the kerb on the apex of Biondetti 1 – an insta-fold of the front tyre. 

MotoGP now moves on to Barcelona, where Fabio Quartararo is going to win, everyone is going to complain about grip, and Dani Pedrosa won’t be wildcarding. But, it’s MotoGP, so that’s all probably false.