MotoGP Spain Championship: Pecco Bagnaia puts Bezzecchi in his place and sees the KTM threat growing

This fourth round of the MotoGP season in Spain will have once again redistributed the cards in the championship with Pecco Bagnaia winning and the KTMs in intimidating mechanical orange mode. This time, it wasn't him who was at fault. On the contrary: the reigning World Champion took advantage of an error from the man from whom he took over the leadership position in the general classification, Marco Bezzecchi. But it wasn't just that: this stage in Jerez revealed the great form of KTM which we did not expect at such a celebration given the performance of the RC16 during the off-season. A real surprise as well as satisfaction, because the two drivers of the brand, Brad Binder and Jack Miller, never generate melancholy.

Pecco Bagnaia, by winning the Jerez race, regained the lead of the World Championship, taking advantage of the fall of the leader Bezzecchi. The official Ducati and defending champion is now in first position with 87 points, an advantage of 22 points on the Mooney V46 team driver. We also note the leap forward in Brad Binder, who goes from 6th to 3rd place, at 25 units, followed by his teammate Jack Miller which has seven fewer.

Maverick Vinales, who had the misfortune of breaking the chain on the last lap in Jerez, slipped to 5th place, ahead of the other beneficiaries of this stage who are Marini et Martin. The latter take the places of Kidneys et zarco which fell in Andalusia. The top 10 is closed by Alex Marquez, to the detriment of the official Yamaha Quarterly et Morbidely who will not have been spared by the penalties which have still caused debate.

It was the first time that KTM stood on the premier category podium in Jerez. With Brad Binder second and Jack Miller third was the second time there were two KTM riders on a MotoGP podium, with Styria in 2020 when Miguel Oliveira had won and Pol Espargaro had finished third. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Miller finished P3 for his first podium since joining KTM This year. Miller has now reached the podium with three different manufacturers in MotoGP: Honda, Ducati and KTM.

Why are Honda and Yamaha incapable of doing for three years what KTM accomplished in a few weeks in the championship?

With this dream weekend embellished by a more than convincing performance by the test driver Dani Pedrosa, KTM showed that we could review everything about a MotoGP project in a few weeks, the kind of operation that so many Yamaha which Honda have been completely unable to demonstrate for three years. Unsurprisingly, the two Japanese coats of arms close the ranking dedicated to manufacturers…

With Maverick Vinales victim of a technical knockout and Marco Bezzecchi, Johann zarco et alex rins who fell, only three drivers scored in the first four GP races: fabio quartararo, Franco Morbidelli et Augusto Fernandez. With Bagnaia, Binder and Miller on the podium, this is only the fourth time in the MotoGP era that there is no Spaniard on the podium at Jerez since the introduction of MotoGP in 2002… It was the same in 2002, 2003 and 2021.

Brad Binder took his sixth MotoGP podium, which are two first places and four second positions. There have been 10 different GP podiums so far this season, the same number as last year at this stage of the season. bagnaia et Bezzecchi are the only drivers to have more than one each.

Francis Bagnaia won his 13th victory in MotoGP in Spain and he is now tied with MotoGP legend Max Biaggi in fourth position on the list of the most successful Italian riders in the premier class (two less than Andrea Dovizioso). Valentino Rossi is in the lead with 89 victories.

With Binder et Miller who win one each, KTM now has 20 podiums in the premier category. Finally, thanks to the victory of bagnaia, Ducati is on a streak of 30 consecutive MotoGP races with at least one rider on the podium. A series that the Borgo Panigale brand will want to continue in two weeks now at Le Mans which will be the scene of the Grand Prix of France, and an interesting meeting between the panel of FIM commissioners chaired by Freddie spencer and the pilots...

MotoGP Spain Championship: rankings (4/20)