Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP returned to the podium at the Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley this weekend, as Frenchman Fabio Quartararo powered to a stunning second place finish in round eight of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship.
Fabio Quartararo delivered a titanic Tuscan display this weekend, storming to a fourth podium of the season with second place at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, which saw him extend his series lead to eight points.
Starting from sixth on the grid after braving the challenging conditions on Saturday, Quartararo made a solid start, settling into fourth before being shuffled back to fifth at the end of lap one. Running in the leading group, the 23-year-old wasted no time as he began his charge forward, firstly picking off Aleix Espargaro before swiftly passing Fabio Di Giannantonio and Luca Marini by the fourth lap.
Pushing hard, Quartararo relinquished the runner-up spot on lap six, falling behind Francesco Bagnaia on the run into San Donato. He was then locked in battle with Marini, with the pair trading places, but Quartararo didn’t give up. Playing to the strengths of his late braking, the Frenchman began to open a gap, and by lap 11, the Yamaha rider was through on Marco Bezzecchi and up to second.
With the gap to Bagnaia ahead just over a second, the rider from Nice continued to push, hoping his harder Michelin tyre would give him the advantage needed as he managed to break away from his pursuers. Continuing to reduce the gap, Quartararo couldn’t get quite close enough to launch an attack on leader Bagnaia, ultimately crossing the line in second place, 0.635 seconds behind.
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s Darryn Binder enjoyed a positive race on Sunday, crossing the line just outside of the points in 16th. Like Quartararo, he too made a strong start to the 24-lap race, quickly settling into a rhythm. But after he crashed under yellow flag in free practice three on Saturday morning, the South African had to complete a long lap penalty, which he took on lap three.
Returning to action in 22nd place, the former Moto3 race-winner got his head down; matching the lap times of the top 12 as he worked his way up to 16th, where he ultimately ended the Grand Prix.
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP’s Franco Morbidelli endured a tricky Grand Prix. Racing in front of his home crowd, the Italian hoped to make progress in the early stages but found the going tough. Running outside of the top 20 and determined to secure a strong result in his and the teams’ home round, Morbidelli battled on, ultimately crossing the line in 17th.
Like Morbidelli, Andrea Dovizioso also had a difficult race. A wrong tyre choice in Saturday’s mixed Q1 left the experienced Italian down the order but he made progress early in Sunday’s encounter. Opting to run the medium front tyre, Dovizioso pushed on and eventually crossed the finish line in 20th position.
Quartararo’s second place sees the Frenchman extend his advantage atop of the standings, sitting eight points clear with 122 points. Franco Morbidelli lies 19th with Andrea Dovizioso and Darryn Binder in 21st and 22nd places respectively.
There’s no rest for the MotoGP teams who will travel to Barcelona for the Catalan Grand Prix across the weekend of 3-5th June.
Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, 2nd
“I didn‘t think that the podium was possible today. But before the race I believed in myself and said ’I have the pace to be in the top 5 today’ and we did a second place. That was, I think, one of the best races of my career. Of course, I would have preferred to win, but I‘m pleased to be on the podium after a tough race like this one. I made a good start and did good overtakes, despite sliding with the front and rear. Before the race I wasn‘t feeling that good on the bike. During the race it was not perfect, but it was better, and I could feel where the limit was. I love riding my bike, I was having a lot of fun, and I could get a really good result. We did a massive job!”
Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, 16th
“It was a good race for me. I’m really happy with how things went. I managed to get a good start and in the first couple of laps, I was in quite an alright position. Unfortunately, I had to take a long lap, which lost me a couple of seconds, but I managed to come back in and fight my way up a little bit further. I had quite a good pace throughout the race. I feel like I’ve made a step forward in the right direction. I’ve found that front feeling that I was looking for, and I was able to just ride the race like how I wanted and push every lap and be precise. I was really close to the points, I feel like if I didn’t have to do the long lap, I would have scored points today. But overall I think I did a good job this weekend.”
Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team, 17th
“Starting from the 23rd position was tough, but I caught up with the riders in front of me fighting. I was in 16th position. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get into the group fighting for the points. Darryn Binder was behind me all of the race but then used the slipstream to overtake me by 0.031s at the finish line. But overall we made some improvements. We’ll try to improve other things in Barcelona.”
Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team, 20th
“Today, I was struggling with the speed in the corners. I really didn’t have the pace from the first lap, so I couldn’t stay with the two Yamaha as that was the plan. I’m very disappointed with that. I couldn’t try the hard front tyre in the practice, maybe it was a bit better because they were using that. In any case, I was struggling for not being able to be faster in the way the Yamaha requests it, so it was far from ideal.”
Massimo Meregalli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Team Director
“This second-place finish from Fabio is a fantastic achievement! It tastes almost like a victory, especially here! And it‘s even more impressive because Fabio wasn‘t feeling very confident this morning. To turn things around 180° – what a rider! This podium is a testament to how hard the team works until the very last minute to strive for the best results. Franco was starting from P23 on the grid and didn‘t have a good start. That is very tough to come back from, but he pushed on. He was able to recover some positions, but his overall result doesn‘t reflect his potential. We now move on to Barcelona. The Catalan GP and our team share a Title Sponsor: Monster Energy. We are highly motivated after today‘s podium to also give it some welly there!”
Razlan Razali – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP, Founder and Team Principal
“For the race, we are extremely happy with the performance of Darryn, we were concerned about his long lap penalty and how he will do thereafter. But he made an amazing start and was in a good position, he made his long lap and only lost 2.5 seconds. He showed his worthiness, competencies, capabilities and most importantly his talent to be competitive and managed to be the second-best Yamaha rider in front of Franco Morbidelli. We hope that he will continue this momentum for the next round in Catalunya. We must thank the team especially his Crew Chief, Noe Herrera for being able to give him the setting that he likes on the M1.
“With Andrea, we are simply lost for words in terms of how much he has struggled from qualifying to the race. We will have to sit down and discuss this next week and we need to find ways to turn his season around with 11 rounds to go. We look forward to Barcelona.”
Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley Results:
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo Team
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +0.635
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing +1.983
- Johann Zarco – Prima Pramac Racing +2.590
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team +3.067
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team +3.875
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +4.067
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU +10.944
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing +11.256
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team +11.800
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing MotoGP +12.916
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing +12.917
- Jorge Martin – Prima Pramac Racing +17.240
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda Castrol +17.568
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team +17.687
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +20.265
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP +20.296
- Michele Pirro – Aruba.it Racing +21.305
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +30.548
- Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team +31.011
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing +42.723
- Lorenzo Savadori – Aprilia Racing +1 Lap
MotoGP World Championship Standings
- Fabio Quartararo – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 122 points
- Aleix Espargaro – Aprilia Racing 114 points
- Enea Bastianini – Gresini Racing MotoGP 94 points
- Francesco Bagnaia – Ducati Lenovo team 81 points
- Johann Zarco – Prima Pramac Racing 75 points
- Alex Rins – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 69 points
- Brad Binder – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 65 points
- Jack Miller – Ducati Lenovo Team 63 points
- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team 60 points
- Joan Mir – Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 56 points
- Miguel Oliveira – Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 50 points
- Pol Espargaro – Repsol Honda Team 40 points
- Takaaki Nakagami – LCR Honda IDEMITSU 38 points
- Maverick Viñales – Aprilia Racing 37 points
- Jorge Martin – Prima Pramac Racing 31 points
- Luca Marini – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 31 points
- Marco Bezzecchi – Mooney VR46 Racing Team 30 points
- Alex Marquez – LCR Honda Castrol 20 points
- Franco Morbidelli – Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 19 points
- Fabio Di Giannantonio – Gresini Racing MotoGP 8 points
- Andrea Dovizioso – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 8 points
- Darryn Binder – WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team 6 points
- Remy Gardner – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 3 points
- Raul Fernandez – Tech3 KTM Factory Racing 0 points
- Michele Pirro – Aruba.it Racing 0 points
- Stefan Bradl – Team HRC 0 points
- Lorenzo Savadori – Aprilia Racing 0 points
