Alex Rins wins a thrilling MotoGP Australian GP from Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, as Fabio Quartararo crashes out.
It was a feisty start to MotoGP race in Australian GP a Philip Island where pole-sitter Jorge Martin took the lead in his Pramac Ducati from Honda’s Marc Marquez. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was up to third but dropped to fifth at the of the lap.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia had a bad start to drop to fifth but was back to third by the end of it from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro. VR6 Ducati’s Luca Marini was sixth from LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez, Ducati’s Jack Miller, Suzuki’s Alex Rins and Honda’s Pol Espargaro in Top 10.
The MotoGP race became a Moto3-style outing with several position changes. Miller was up to sixth after a bad start and passed both Quartararo and Espargaro to be fourth and tried a move on teammate Bagnaia where the two exchanged places.
The Italian kept third from Miller as Rins started to make some progress. Amid this, Quartararo started to drop as he made a mistake to drop outside the points. It was Martin in the lead from Marquez, Rins, Bagnaia, Miller, Espargaro in the Top 6.
Marini was seventh from Bezzecchi, Marquez and KTM’s Brad Binder in the Top 10. Before things could settle down, Marquez had a huge miss on his braking point as he touched Marini and rammed into Miller to crash out together with the Australian.
With the two out and the incident under investigation, it was disaster for MotoGP title contender Quartararo who crashed out to lose his points lead. At the front, Martin started to come under pressure from Marquez, Rins and Bagnaia.
It started to close up where Rins made up couple of places to lead the MotoGP Australian GP. Bagnaia made the most to move up to second after passing both Marquez and Martin where the former leader dropped to fifth behind Bezzecchi.
But Rins couldn’t hold onto the lead for long as Bagnaia passed him at Turn 1 to take the MotoGP Australian GP lead. Marquez was third from Bezzecchi and Martin, but the Italian’s wide moment allowed the Spaniard to move up to fourth.
Espargaro was sixth from Marini with Binder in eighth from Gresini Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, who climbed up into the Top 10 after having a disastrous first lap. Pramac’s Johann Zarco was 10th from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, P Espargaro, RNF Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow, RNF’s Darryn Binder and Suzuki’s Mir in the Top 15.
The fight for the win continued to change as Rins passed Bagnaia to take MotoGP Australian GP lead, but he couldn’t stay there for more laps as the Italian retook it soon. No sooner he lost that, Bezzecchi came through nowhere to be second.
Rins dropped to fourth but took Marquez for third. The Honda rider had a moment to drop to fifth where he lost fourth to Martin but retook the place in the chase for third. Marini joined this party after clearing Martin to be fifth.
Bastianini was up to seventh from Espargaro with Zarco and Binder rounding the Top 10. Bagnaia stood in the lead despite pressure from Bezzecchi, but a slight moment allowed Rins and Marquez to sneak past the Italian to be second and third.
The final lap changed the order again as Rins passed Bagnaia to not only lead the Australian GP race but eventually held on to win his first of the 2022 MotoGP season. Marquez was second after passing Bagnaia in a fine show.
Despite being third, Bagnaia took the MotoGP points lead by 14 points over Quartararo, as Bezzecchi ended up fourth to secure the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title. Bastianini came through the field to end up fifth from Marini, with Martin seventh.
Teammate Zarco was eighth with Espargaro ending up ninth from Binder in the Top 10. P Esparagro was 11th from KTM’s Miguel Oliveira as RNF pair of Crutchlow was 13th from D Binder with Tech 3 KTM’s Remy Gardner scoring points in his home grand prix.
Teammate Raul Fernandez missed out in 16th with Vinales only 17th from Mir, LCR’s Tetsuta Nagashima, Gresini’s Fabio di Giannantonio among the 20 finishers.
DNF: Franco Morbidelli, Quartararo, Miller, Marquez
The 2nd closest top 10 in #MotoGP history! 🙌
Phillip Island, we love you ❤️#AustralianGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/CH2T5N442P
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 16, 2022