Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) with a “stoppie” in the pit exit on Saturday – the Frenchman started the race on Sunday full of self-confidence and only physical problems could slow him down in the end.

Yamaha missed the 4th win in a row only with bad luck and Jack is back

A Ducati is now ahead in the World Championship after Pecco Bagnaia finished second in Jerez de la Frontera. At first glance, it was an absolute triumph for Ducati with the first one-two of the season. But before you talk about a changing of the guard at the top, you should take a closer look at the course of the race. Fabio Quartararo had only come out of the first corner in P4 as pole setter, but then he went on the attack. By halfway through the race, he was already in the lead with a clear lead over Miller. Behind him, Franco Morbidelli was behind the Australian, which had grown to almost 2 seconds before everything suddenly changed.

Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo) and his look back – from now on, after his first win of the season, he can look forward again and hope for a continuation of his success in Andalusia. Last year the Australian retired at Le Mans in a hopeful position with a technical problem.

The decision came from arm-pumping problems
It was only because Quartararo was slowing down that Jack was able to catch up and pass the Frenchman. In the end, this fell back to 13th place and would have become the undisputed deserved winner of the Spanish GP. Nonetheless, everyone indulges Miller and there is nothing to be said against that. But the decision came due to arm-pump problems of the Frenchman, who ultimately had no chance to bring his lead to the finish. Now it will be decided whether and when Fabio will have an operation in order to be able to be at the front again at Le Mans. The following is the result from Jerez with many surprises.

The strong comeback of Takaaki Nakagami

After finishing 10th at the Portuguese Grand Prix, the fast Japanese made a sensationally strong comeback. With all the fuss that was being made about Marc Marquez in Portimão, his result was completely lost at the time. Takaaki had bravely got through there and got 10th place, although until shortly before the race it was not even clear whether he could drive at all. After a terrible fall on the start-finish straight, he had to go to the medical center on Saturday, was checked briefly and then even drove again. After that, however, Nakagami decided against qualifying. Now he was by far the strongest Honda driver in Jerez and thus completely overshadowed the two factory team colleagues. However, this statement only refers to his performance, almost everyone will again only look at Marquez, although the brave samurai was much better than him.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) – in Jerez de la Frontera only narrowly missed the podium and all the other Honda riders were literally outclassed, but unfortunately many did not see how sensationally strong his performance was.

Very strong again: Aleix Espargaró and Morbido

As long as he doesn’t win, exactly the same applies to the Aprilia pilot as to Nakagami. Hardly anyone takes notice of their performance and appreciates it accordingly, especially the majority of journalists. The Catalan is ahead of both KTM and Honda works drivers in the World Championship and one of the Suzuki aces with Alex Rins. Incidentally, the brother of Honda works driver Pol also stated that he suffered from arm pumps. On Monday he wanted to forego the tests in Jerez and be examined. According to his own statement, he lost fourth place to Nakagami and Mir with a lot of bad luck. Just like Aleix Espargaró and the Japanese, Morbido is also the rider most bullied by the scribblers in MotoGP. However, the Italians don’t care as long as they are doing as well as in Andalusia. This time he saved the honor of Yamaha again and took the place of Quartararo on the podium, while Maverick Viñales did not get past P7.

Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) With 6th place was again better than Marquez, Viñales and many other works drivers of much more financially strong teams. There was only a little missing for fourth place, and it was the closest gap to the winner in Aprilia’s history.

Suzuki with little light and a lot of shadow
5th place for Joan Mir was not what he and his team had hoped for from the Spanish GP. But things went even worse for Alex Rins after the second fall in a row. To claim that Suzuki has the worm would be absolutely wrong. Nevertheless, the race at the Circuito de Jerez showed that the trees are anything but sky-high for the Suzuki squad. In the first Corona year, Mir was still world champion despite two failures in the first three races. However, it is questionable whether the defending champion with only one podium so far is really one of the favorites for this year’s title. Without Quartararo’s bad luck, he would only have finished sixth, which is not a promise for the near future. There has to be an improvement at Le Mans. However, the French GP had been his weakest of the season at the races in which he saw the checkered flag last year.

Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) – the reigning world champion did not start the season as hoped. The pressure is slowly growing if he wants to build on his sensationally consistent performance in the previous year.

Johann Zarco – from World Championship leader to unlucky fellow
His fall in Portugal was the result of a problem with the gears, as it became known after the fall at the Autodromo do Algarve. The fast Frenchman drove a good race at Jerez, but his problem was the start. Instead of benefiting from the strength of his Ducati up to the first corner, he initially dropped 5 positions from P6. If you don’t want to fall a second time in a row in a race, it’s a tightrope walk to move forward. This was proven by the crash of Alex Marquez and Alex Rins in the Spanish GP. Although the winner was only 7.161 seconds behind fellow brand colleague Miller, in the end it was only enough for 8th place. The only consolation here, as for his compatriot Quartararo, is the still excellent position in the intermediate championship ranking. As fifth in the World Championship, Zarco is missing a tiny 2 points from Viñales’ third position and the season is still long.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing Ducati) before the start of the Spanish Grand Prix in Andalusia – a bad start made for an arduous race that was only poorly rewarded with 8th place in the end.

The biggest losers: the brothers Marquez and Valentino Rossi

While Alex Marquez fell on the starting lap, his brother at least stayed seated. But a ninth place is not what he promised his fans when he had to forego the 2nd race at the end of July 2020. At that time, the 6-time world champion was still on record that he would come back stronger than ever. Why there are commentators afterwards who describe a gap of over 10 seconds on the winner as a strong performance by the Spaniard is difficult to understand. In contrast to his comeback weekend in Portugal, he did without theatrical contortions and arm exercises this time, but it’s impossible to gloss over his result. At least based on his previous performances, qualifying and the race were an absolute debacle. This also applies to his former arch-rival Valentino Rossi, who was only a shadow of himself in the 4th Grand Prix of the season.

Valentino Rossi (Petronas Yamaha SRT) before the start – the old champion has never looked as disillusioned as this year and after the fall at the Portuguese Grand Prix he missed the points again. Last year he had his last podium so far in Jerez, the crowd favorite is at the absolute low point of his career.
Marc Marquez after his crash in the warm-up on Sunday morning in front of his Repsol Honda lying on the ground. Anyone who, like Bradl recently, continues to claim that the 2019 world champion will still fight for the title this year risks making people mockery.

The only losers among the teams: KTM

When Brad Binder crashed after a few laps, the Oranges still had 3 riders in the race. But with Miguel Oliveira, the best of them only saw the checkered flag in 11th place. The 2 points from Petrux and one from Lecuona cannot hide the fact that KTM is completely in trouble. You have to know that Dani Pedrosa was constantly testing, even during the Losail weekend even in Jerez, where they still failed so badly. It can no longer be denied that only their concession status and test advantage had caused an intermediate high in the previous year. In the meantime, up to Aprilia, they have been provided with skewers of the same length as the rest of the teams and have become backbenchers again who were already before. Obviously, an experienced pilot like Pol Espargaró is missing at every nook and cranny, who will free you from this mess. Danilo Petrucci is clearly not the man for it.

Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) – winner of his home race last year and crashed in 2021, the Portuguese is looking for a connection to the top. With almost 15 seconds behind the winner, he clearly has not yet found the solution.

Status in the world championship in all classes after round 4

Marc Marquez on all fours in front of his completely destroyed Repsol Honda on Saturday morning in FP3 – the world champion picked up in Jerez where he left off last year. When trying to force, he exceeded his limit in Jerez de la Frontera again on Sunday and as ninth in the race and fifteenth in the World Cup, the Catalan suffered a setback after P7 in Portugal.

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