Quartararo crash gives Bagnaia points lead, Suzuki’s Rins wins

Suzuki MotoGP rider Alex Rins took victory in a blockbuster Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, as Francesco Bagnaia took over the championship lead and Fabio Quartararo crashed out.

Quartararo had already made a major error early in the race before falling while trying to recover, his two-point lead over Bagnaia coming into Phillip Island turning into a 14-point disadvantage.

It was a vintage Phillip Island pack race, with the top seven split by 0.884s at the flag as Rins fought off Marc Marquez on the final lap.

It marked LCR Honda-bound Rins’s fourth MotoGP win, and Suzuki’s first since 2020 in what was the third-to-last race of the marque’s current premier-class programme.

There was rain overnight and a shower during MotoGP warm-up – the damp track causing a crash for Marquez – but the track was already effectively dry in time for the Moto3 race, never mind the MotoGP grand prix three hours later.

It looks as though @marcmarquez93 got caught out by the white line!

The Honda man is all OK #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/PvEN9SNJpG

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) October 15, 2022

Quartararo moved past his two main title rivals off the line with an excellent launch, but was relegated back behind Aleix Espargaro and Bagnaia in an opening-lap tussle that let the top two starters, poleman Jorge Martin and Marquez, break away by nearly a second .

And soon after Bagnaia reclaimed third he had Ducati factory team-mate Jack Miller behind him, Miller having picked off Quartararo’s Yamaha through the Doohan corner and Espargaro’s Aprilia with a lunge down Turn 10.

On the fourth lap, Quartararo dropped behind VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini, too – and, finding himself battling in the pack, he made a huge mess of Turn 4, getting his braking all wrong into the corner newly-named after Miller.

MASSIVE MISTAKE! @FabioQ20 runs wide at Miller Corner, he’s back in 22nd! #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/W0fpP4Esmi

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) October 16, 2022

Narrowly avoiding contact with his fellow riders, he rejoined the race alongside Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli, running out of the top 20.

He’d recover to 15th by lap 11, on course to score points after all, before crashing out at the Southern Loop. Morbidelli himself would also fall out of the race 11 laps later.

UNBELIEVABLE! QUARTARARO IS OUT OF THE RACE! @FabioQ20’s title hopes ARE FALLING APART! #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/A2tjEhLOEV

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) October 16, 2022

Soon after Quartararo’s initial error eliminated him from the fight, Miller attempted two turns 10 lunges on Bagnaia in back-to-back laps, the second proving successful – only for Bagnaia to counter-attack on the main straight.

And Miller’s race wouldn’t last much longer after that, as he was brutally wiped out at Turn 4 – the newly-named Miller corner – by Alex Marquez, with the LCR Honda rider getting his overtaking attempt on Luca Marini badly wrong.

THE HOME HERO IS OUT!

Contact from @alexmarquez73 cleans @jackmilleraus out of the race and surely the title race too! #AustralianGP pic.twitter.com/BNQOrE6PN3

— MotoGP (@MotoGP) October 16, 2022

By that point, Miller had already been jumped by Rins—who had been just ninth at the end of the opening lap but steadily picked his way through the pack. He passed the works Ducatis in consecutive laps at Southern Loop, slipstreamed past the elder Marquez at the start of lap 11 and finally took the lead off Martin on lap 14 at the Stoner corner.

Yet with Martin then demoted by both Bagnaia and Marquez at Miller corner, Rins’ initial lead proved short lived as the duo muscled their way past him on the following tour, albeit with Rins repassing Marquez two laps later.

That allowed Rins to then take first place from Bagnaia out of the Southern Loop, but two corners into the next lap he was down to fourth, overtaken by Bagnaia, VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi and Marquez.

With three laps to go, Rins was back on Bagnaia’s tail—yet having to work hard to fight off Marquez at the same time. The Suzuki man finally overtook Bagnaia at Southern Loop on the final tour – and, with Marquez taking advantage to also get past the title hopeful, Rins had to out-duel the six-time MotoGP champion over the rest of the lap.

Behind Bagnaia, Bezzecchi narrowly held off the charging fellow year-old Ducati of Gresini rider Enea Bastianini, who was running outside the points-scoring places in the early going.

Marini and Martin completed the ultra-close top seven, while Martin’s Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco, recovering from a particularly poor opening lap, made it six Ducatis between third and eighth.

Espargaro struggled after the lively start, finishing ninth to go into Sepang 27 points off Bagnaia – and 15 points up on Bastianini, the only other remaining title contender.

Race Results

position	Surname	team	bike	laps	Laps Led	total time	Fastest lap	pit stops	Pts
1	Alex Rins	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	27	2	40m50.654s	1m29.85s	0	25
2	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	27	0	+0.186s	1m30.117s	0	20
3	Francesco Bagnaia	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati	27	11	+0.224s	1m30.096s	0	16
4	Marco Bezzecchi	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	27	0	+0.534s	1m29.796s	0	13
5	Enea Bastianini	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	27	0	+0.557s	1m29.88s	0	11
6	Luca Marini	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	27	0	+0.688s	1m29.903s	0	10
7	Jorge Martin	Pramac Racing	Ducati	27	13	+0.884s	1m30.092s	0	9
8th	Johann Zarco	Pramac Racing	Ducati	27	0	+3.141s	1m29.622s	0	8th
9	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	27	0	+4.548s	1m29.793s	0	7
10	Brad Binder	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	27	0	+5.94s	1m29.901s	0	6
11	Pol Espargaro	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	27	0	+11.048s	1m30.256s	0	5
12	Miguel Oliveira	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	27	0	+13.606s	1m30.089s	0	4
13	Cal Crutchlow	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	27	0	+13.89s	1m30.349s	0	3
14	Darryn Binder	WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team	Yamaha	27	0	+14,526s	1m30.211s	0	2
15	Remy Gardner	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	27	0	+19.47s	1m30.145s	0	1
16	Raúl Fernández	Tech3 KTM Factory Racing	KTM	27	0	+20.645s	1m30.106s	0	0
17	Maverick Vinales	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	27	0	+22.167s	1m30.14s	0	0
18	Joan Mir	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	Suzuki	27	0	+23,489s	1m30.284s	0	0
19	Tetsuta Nagashima	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	27	0	+39.618s	1m31.049s	0	0
20	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	27	0	+39,633s	1m30.687s	0	0
	Franco Morbidelli	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	21	0	DNF	1m30.306s	0	0
	Fabio Quartararo	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	10	0	DNF	1m30.019s	0	0
	Jack Miller	Ducati Lenovo team	Ducati	8th	0	DNF	1m30.06s	0	0
	Alex Marquez	LCR Honda Castrol	Honda	8th	0	DNF	1m29.805s	0	0