The thrilling Qatar Grand Prix has a sensational winner! For the first time since 2004, a Gresini rider won, fans witnessed four crashes

The opening round of the 2022 season at the Qatar International Circuit in Losail is now behind us, and it was a nerve-wracking spectacle indeed! Enea Bastiniani scored the success of a lifetime, with fans witnessing a total of four crashes. So what is the final standings of the Qatar Grand Prix?

The start of the Qatar Grand Prix has really shaken up the standings. Jorge Martin got off to a very poor start from first place, having major problems immediately after leaving his starting slot and having to work hard to avoid crashing after all five lights were out.

This left both Repsol Honda bikes – Pol Espargaro and Marc Márquez – in the top two positions. Also making a fantastic start was Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, who moved up to third. The twenty-six year old South African recorded solid results throughout the race weekend.

On the other hand, Francesco Bagnaia on the Ducati had a very poor start, dropping from ninth to fourteenth. Johann Zarco, last season’s best non-touring rider, also picked up a significant loss right after the start.

The Pramac Racing rider lost six positions at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix and was up to nineteenth at the start of the second lap.

Binder even moved up to second in the following laps, splitting the Honda Repsol riders. Enea Bastianini then set an absolutely superb pace over the next few laps.

The Suzuki bikes had some of the best top speed. The Japanese stable’s riders moved up the rankings as the race progressed, with Joan Mir settling in at number six and Alex Rins moving up to seventh.

Before the race, Marc Márquez revealed at the press conference that he doesn’t like the Qatar circuit very much, as it doesn’t suit him as a rider, and that’s what it looked like during the Qatar Grand Prix – after half of the race the Spanish legend was in fifth place.

Fans witnessed the first crash on the eighth lap of the Qatar Grand Prix, when Marco Bezzecchi, rider of the newly formed Mooney VR46 Racing Team, failed to control his bike at Turn 1.

On the same lap, Jack Miller on the factory Ducati motorcycle also retired due to technical problems. The Italian team thus continued the race with only one rider, the Italian Bagnaia.

However, he too ended his participation in the Qatar Grand Prix prematurely. For on lap 12, on the run-up to Turn 1 on its inside track, he gave too much throttle, closing his front end and taking the Spaniard Martin on the Pramac with him.

However, both drivers survived the truly dangerous crash without any sign of serious injury, with Bagnaia and Martin leaving the circuit safely on their own.

On lap ten, LCR Honda driver Alex Márquez crashed, his third crash of the race weekend, with the last crash witnessed by the fans on lap eleven when Binder’s stablemate Miguel Oliveira went down. Notably, all of the crashes involved the first corner.

As the Qatar Grand Prix drew to a close, Bastianini set an even more frantic pace, setting the fastest time of the entire field on lap eighteen (1:54.338). With four laps to go, Bastianini then took the lead from Polo Espargar.

Not only did the Honda rider lose the lead, but he made a mistake at Turn 1 on lap 19, which was taken advantage of by KTM’s Binder in second place.

The Gresini Racing rider enjoyed a 1.5-second lead at the front, but his advantage continued to shrink thereafter. A respectable pace was set by Binder at the end, however Bastianini managed the nerve-wracking finish and dominated the Qatar Grand Prix after a grandiose performance!

The last time a Gresini Racing driver managed to win a race was in 2004. Bastianini then said in a post-race interview that he was dedicating the win to Fausto Gresini, who had died the year before from coronavirus.

“My feelings are incredible right now, it’s hard for me to judge at the moment. From the beginning I tried to go as fast as I could, but I had to keep an eye on the tyres to make sure they were usable at the end of the race. But the team did a fantastic job and I want to dedicate this win to Fausto,” said Bastianini in a post-race interview.

“Today was a really great day, I’m really very happy, the whole weekend was good for us. I felt very comfortable with the bike from the start, a big thank you to the whole KTM team, we’ve done a real good job since last year and it shows,” added South African Binder in his assessment immediately after the race.

Bastianini takes the first place from the Qatar Grand Prix with Binder and Pol Espargaro on the podium. Fourth place was defended by his brother Aleix, with Márquez finishing fifth. Sixth and seventh place belong to the riders of the Suzuki Ecstar team (Mir, Rins).

On the home straight, Zarco overtook the current champion Quartararo and secured the number 8 position with a difference of only seven thousandths of a second. LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami rounds out the top ten.

Source: Moto GP