Quartararo dominates, Espargaro blunder costs podium

Reigning world champion Quartararo – who announced he’d re-signed with Yamaha for two more years last Thursday – ended Friday’s practice “worried” about how the low grip at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was affecting the Yamaha.

But he showed no such signs of struggle as he lead from lights to flag to strengthen his lead in the championship with his second win of the season.

Quartararo grabbed the holeshot from third on the grid, jumping a poor-starting Francesco Bagnaia and poleman Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia.

Bagnaia’s race would last just a few more metres as LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed behind him, wiping out the Ducati rider with his head while his errant RC213V skittled Suzuki’s Alex Rins.

The incident was put under investigation but no further action was deemed to be required, with Nakagami being taken to the medical centre for precautionary checks.

Bagnaia did remount, but pulled into pitlane at the end of the second tour – his championship hopes wrecked.

Ducati’s day got worse eight laps in when Enea Bastianini crashed out for the second-successive race, the Gresini rider’s championship aspirations taking a severe knock.

At the front Quartararo, in clear air, quickly began to put daylight between himself and the pack behind on the opening lap as Espargaro came under attack from a rejuvenated Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati.

Martin out-braked Espargaro into the first corner at the start of lap three, with Johann Zarco on the sister Pramac GP22 close behind in fourth.

But Martin could do nothing to bridge the gap to Quartararo, who was 1.5s clear at the start of lap four and had that advantage up to two seconds by the end of the sixth lap.

Espargaro took second back from Martin into Turn 1 on lap 10, while Quartararo opened up his lead to four seconds four tours later.

By this stage of the race Espargaro’s medium front tyre began to cry…