Marquez wins dramatic race, Quartararo becomes new MotoGP World Champion

Fabio Quartararo has won the 2021 MotoGP World Championship following a crash for Francesco Bagnaia while leading the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, a crash that resulted in Marc Marquez winning his third race of the year.  

Although Jack Miller got a better launch and was side-by-side with Bagnaia heading into turn one, the Italian was much later on the brakes and retained the lead. 

Miller was also passed by Miguel Oliveira, but the Ducati man regained P2 in turn four. 

Just behind that was Marquez who made a brilliant start from seventh to fourth. Marquez then made it third by getting ahead of Oliveira into turn eight. 

One man who didn’t get a great start was championship leader Quartararo as he lost two places. 

However, the Yamaha rider soon found his feet and picked off Alex Marquez, Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco. 

While the front three of Bagnaia, Miller and Marquez began to pull clear of Pol Espargaro in fourth, Quartararo was then elevated into 11th as Miller crashed out at turn 15. 

Miller was the third rider to go down after early contact between Joan Mir, who was given a double long-lap penalty due to jumping the start, and Danilo Petrucci made contact at turn two. Both riders were unable to rejoin. 

After moving up to tenth due to a mistake by Iker Lecuona, Quartararo then made that ninth after a lovely move on Jorge Martin.

What was already a disappointing race for LCR Honda then got even worse as Nakagami and Marquez both retired on the same lap - Nakagami due to a crash and Marquez because of a technical problem. 

Tech 3 KTM joined LCR in having both riders out of the race as Lecuona crashed at turn one. 

At the front, Bagnaia continued to lead from Marquez but the gap was only two tenths of a second. 

A great move by Alex Rins saw him get ahead of Franco Mobidelli for sixth at mid-race distance, a move that began a drop of four positions for the Italian as Luca Marini, Quartararo and Zarco all got through. 

With eight laps to go Quartararo moved up to fifth after back-to-back overtakes on Rins and Aleix Espargaro. 

A few laps after Bagnaia set his personal best lap, Marquez did the same to remain within half a second of the Ducati rider.

A big moment at turn 15 then followed for Marquez as he lost three tenths to Bagnaia. However, just as Bagnaia looked to be in complete control and pulling clear, the Italian crashed at the same corner as Miller.

Quartararo was elevated to fourth due to Bagnaia’s crash, before that then became third as Oliveira crashed from third. 

Marquez went on to win from Espargaro, while Quartararo narrowly missed out on the podium after Bastianini got ahead of the Frenchman at turn 14. 

KTM rider Brad Binder had to start from the back of the grid after crashing on the sighting lap. After making progress through to 12th, the South African rider’s day went from bad to worse after being given a long-lap penalty.

Quartararo has also become the first ever French premier class world champion.