MotoGP

Fabio Quartararo's champion journey

In Misano, Fabio Quartararo became the first French world champion in the premier category.

Published on 24/10/2021 à 14:51

Tom Morsellino

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Fabio Quartararo's champion journey

This 2021 Emilia-Romagna GP will forever be engraved in the annals of motorcycle Grands Prix as the one where the first Frenchman was crowned world champion in the premier category. Since 1949, the year the championship was created, several of them, like Christian Sarron or Raymond Roche, have claimed it, but none of them managed to win... at least, until until today.

Ranked fourth when passing under the checkered flag, fabio quartararo is 65 steps ahead before the last two meetings on the calendar; a sufficient advance to ensure whatever happens to become the 28e different driver crowned in the most prestigious of categories.

At the season opener in Qatar, Quartararo qualified second and finished fifth. Statistically, since the advent of MotoGP in 2002, the one who wins the title at the end of the season has always appeared in the Top 5 of the first race of the year with the exception of Joan Mir last year.

During the second race organized on the same Losail track, the French driver made everyone agree by winning his first victory of the year. By returning to the Old Continent near Portimão, a circuit which had not smiled on him at all last year, Fabio Quartararo began a series of five pole positions in a row. Apart from the race in Jerez which he led for a long time before collapsing due to a problem with compartment syndrome in his right arm and a penalty in Catalonia after his leather opened, he has always figured on the podium. A third place at Le Mans despite conditions he hardly liked and a moving victory at Mugello following the tragic disappearance of Jason Dupasquier in Moto3 were added to his record of the season. It was also in front of his audience that the Niçois took back control of the provisional ranking and never let go.

Until the Emilia-Romagna GP, the Yamaha rider never qualified beyond the front row and he took six additional podiums. In Germany, Marc Marquez's playground, he finished third. In the Netherlands, he returned to the top step by winning with more than 2.5 seconds ahead of his former teammate Maverick Viñales, the man who was described as the anti-Marquez when he arrived in the Yamaha ranks in 2017.

Returning from the summer break in Styria and Austria, two events which could have proved disastrous for Quartararo, the latter came out brilliantly. Third then seventh the following week at the end of a race marked by the arrival of rain a few laps from the checkered flag, the Frenchman increased his overall lead to 47 points. It is on the occasion of the second round at Red Bull Ring that an adversary has truly revealed himself, a certain Francesco Bagnaia. Ahead of the British GP, the protégé of Valentino Rossi tied for second place with Joan Mir.

At Silverstone, the Habs managed to keep control by winning for the fifth time of the season while their main rival could not do better than 14e. However, in Aragón, the Ducati rider responded by claiming his very first MotoGP success from pole position after a breathtaking fight against Marquez. Fabio Quartararo secured eighth place. In San Marino, Francesco Bagnaia did it again... but barely. The Italian certainly led the hostilities from start to finish, starting from pole, but the Yamaha rider, despite being left behind in the first laps and hampered by his opponents, did not give up. If Bagnaia increased his lead to almost three seconds, it melted like snow in the sun after crossing the halfway mark. Quartararo has indeed fought hard to get back in the wake of his rival. He finally had to settle for second place, conceding five points to the Ducati rider who casually managed to prevent the Frenchman from playing a match point in Austin.

In the United States, the Nice native did not tempt the devil against Marc Marquez who was once again officiating on one of his favorite circuits. However, he kept his distance from Bagnaia who finished third, discreetly helped by his teammate Jack Miller. By gaining four points overall, Fabio Quartararo therefore had a first opportunity to take the crown during a second meeting in Misano full of twists and turns.

Uncomfortable in the wet, the Frenchman qualified with difficulty in 15th position, his worst result since his arrival in MotoGP. And with Bagnaia on pole, everyone thought that the title was going to be decided in Portimão… and it was not. If Bagnaia masterfully led the hostilities, the Italian made a mistake five laps from the checkered flag. From then on the title was won... regardless of Fabio Quartararo's final result. He gave everything in the race, giving us a breathtaking comeback. He thought he would finish the race on the podium, but Enea Bastianini deprived him of this privilege on the last lap.

And at 22 years and 187 days, Fabio Quartararo becomes the sixth youngest world champion in the premier category, just ahead of a certain Valentino Rossi and behind another legend on two and four wheels in the person of John Surtees. A new page in the history of French motorcycling has just been written and as they say among our Anglo-Saxon neighbors, “The best is yet to come”.

Tom Morsellino

Journalist and MotoGP reporter.

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