Quartararo hadn’t won a race since Silverstone 2021 last August, but surmounted early leader Joan Mir on the fourth lap and romped to a crucial first win of a so far difficult season.
Mir streaked away off the line from second on the grid to lead a race for the first time since his title-winning season in 2020, while Quartararo leaped from fifth to third.
Between the two champions was Pramac poleman Johann Zarco, but Quartararo mugged second off of him into the Turn 3 right-hander as Mir pulled around six tenths clear at the front.
Zarco was briefly shoved back to fifth by factory Ducati counterpart Jack Miller and the LCR Honda of Alex Marquez – though Zarco quickly got back into the podium places by the end of the second tour.
Quartararo ate into Mir’s lead on the second lap and was soon within striking distance, with the Yamaha rider making his move into Turn 1 on the fourth tour having nailed his run out of the sweeping downhill final corner and taken profit of the Suzuki’s tow.
Immediately Quartararo opened up a lead of close to a second and would continue to extend that as Mir dropped back into the clutches of Zarco.
Zarco would make a failed attempt at taking second from Mir at the start of lap 16, the Pramac rider running wide at the first corner.
Johann Zarco, Pramac Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
But he made the pass stick next time around, with Mir now forced to fend of Miller for the final podium place.
Miller would get a run on Mir into the first corner as they started lap 19 of 25, but would lose the front of his Ducati under braking and wipe out the Suzuki rider.
Race direction has placed the incident under investigation.
This promoted Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro up to third, with the Argentina winner embroiled early on in a battle with Alex Marquez, KTM’s Miguel Oliveira and a hard-charging Alex Rins on the sister factory Suzuki.
Rins qualified down in 23rd after making a strategy error in the wet-to-dry Q1…
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