Francesco Bagnaia’s great performance is not enough to undermine Fabio Quartararo’s lead in the 2022 MotoGP standings.
The Ducati rider on past Sunday showed once again that he was in a great performance, repeating what only Casey Stoner had done for the Bologna house, back in 2008: he won the third race in a row. But the good result didn’t do more than take five points off the advantage of Quartararo in the MotoGP standings.
Since the premier class returned to the Spielberg track in 2016, Ducati has reigned supreme. Nowthat’s seven wins in nine races, with another two wins on KTM’s account.
Desmosedici has always swam in calm waters there. In Saturday’s training sessions, the Bologna home had options to win with more than one rider: Pecco, Enea Bastianni, Jack Miller , Jorge Martín, Johann Zarco.
Fabio, on the other hand, boarded knowing that life would not be easy. Even with the new chicane, which slowed down the track thanks to a change at Turn 2. On the first day of practice, Zarco even said that the new track layout helped Ducati, as it was a new point of acceleration, a of Desmosedici forces.
In the standings, the Italian factory climbed a wall, taking not only the entire front row, but also fourth position. Fabio had to settle for fifth, with Zarco close behind. As he has done throughout 2022, “El Diablo” knew he needed a perfect start to fight the mighty Desmosedici. But that didn’t happen.
Instead of advancing on the exit, Quartararo retreated and dropped to sixth. Different from Pecco. Second on the grid, the member of the VR46 Pilot Academy took the lead right at the exit and practically never left.
