MotoGP Japan Championship: the roller coaster of Fabio Quartararo, the devil who awakened the demons of Pecco Bagnaia

Rarely has an eighth place probably meant so much to Fabio Quartararo who can tick off this number as a lucky charm when leaving Japan. Indeed, he materialized not only his place in this Grand Prix at Motegi, crushed by the performance of a winning Jack Miller, but also the widening gap over his two main rivals in the championship, Pecco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaró. Even Enea Bastianini lost a little in this sixteenth round of the championship which is a real good deal for the Frenchman…

This becomes a recurrence and it is tiring for one's adversaries: each time one believes that Fabio Quartararo is close to the final blow, it is at this moment that he manages to escape to escape and grant himself a reprieve in the title race. The one caught in this Japanese Grand Prix could be decisive in a season which only has four stages left. Including that of Thailand, from next weekend…

At Motegi, the reigning French champion began his meeting with a 10 and 17 point lead in the general classification over Pecco Bagnaia et Aleix Espargaró. While he was just in the top 10, he left the scene with a gap of 18 over the official Ducati and 25 on the pilot Aprilia. Which makes 8 units more each time with this eighth place. The liabilities ofEnea Bastianini goes from 48 to 49 lengths.

What is good for the morale of the tricolor is obviously bad for a Pecco Bagnaia caught up by his old demons while getting impatient, on the last lap, behind the Yamaha. Ultimately, the Piedmontese, despite his claims, has not changed that much. It remains very crumbly when things go wrong. In the rain, during qualifying, he was nowhere and was looking for the cause of this slump. In the race, he never lived up to his teammate Miller domineering, unable to take off a bastianini who still does not spare him, to the point of stumbling upon Fabio Quartararo, with the consequences that we know... We will see, starting next weekend in Thailand, the devastation caused on the Italian's morale by this blunder in Japan.

Fabio Quartararo remains elusive for his rivals

As for Aleix Espargaró, it's a missed opportunity because of the technique. The RS-GP driver is a real victim of bad luck until further information. As for bastianini, he took advantage of nothing, remaining behind the reigning champion, proving incapable of being as brilliant as the Australian winner and even of Jorge Martin, two pilots who put two Ducati on the podium. La Desmosedici therefore had arguments to make this Sunday.

In this sixteenth round of the championship, we will not fail to point out the second place of Brad Binder at the helm, let us remember, of a KTM. The South African finished behind his future teammate after a performance of which he definitely had the secret. We finished with fourth place Marc Marquez. He was wise and led his boat well Honda with a soft rear. On a grueling route, his right arm held up. A good omen…

MotoGP Japan Championship: ranking after Japan (16/20)

Credit classification motogp.com