For the second consecutive week, MotoGP is ready to race in Spain, in Andalusia at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit. Fabio Quartararo won the race last week. He wants to go back to back. Can he accomplish that feat? We are about to find out. It's time to race, for a second time at Jerez de la Frontera! Fabio Quartararo is the man starting from pole position. Remember, Marc Marquez is not in this race as his arm is healing. So, there will be one less contender today, but it should still be a sizzler of a motorcycle race.
Red lights, on. Red lights, out! Away we go! Fabio Quartararo is the one who gets the jump on the rest of the fiueld but he has other riders ganging up on him already right from the off. Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller, and Francesco Bagnaia all want a piece of the pie and we've not even reached the first corner yet! Oh! Oh! We've got a rider down in the middle of the field already! Ouch! Miguel Oliveira is pitched off his motorcycle in spectacular fashion! He is on the #88 Red Bull Tech3 KTM, one of the four in the field, and the second of the satellite team bikes. There are two teams. A factory squad and a satellite squad. Well, Oliveira got the worst of the deal on this one. He has taken a tumble. 25 laps scheduled for this motorcycle race as the race continues.
The two Yamaha factory bikes are up to challenging Fabio Quartararo already. Maverick Vinales is on the inside, going for the lead, and right there with him is his team mate, the legend, "The Doctor", Valentino Rossi. Wow. Vinales runs wide into the corner, look, and that allows Oliveira to get by and pass for the lead of this motorcycle race. The other riders are going to be in a mess of trouble because if he gets a head of steam and he clears off from the rest of the pack, there will be no catching him. There will be no stopping this fast Frenchman. Rossi makes a move around Vinales for second spot.
Meantime, the Ducati's are going for it. It's the two Pramac Racing team mates, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, having a fair old dust up for third. Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati is also there. It's either Dovizioso or it's Danilo Petrucci. Actually, both of them are squabbling for position as well. Pol Espargaro is right behind these two on the second of the Gresini Aprilia RS-GP motorcycles. He is team mates with Bradley Smith for 2020. We watch the four riders dice from the overhead drone camera. Whoops! One of the KTM riders has gone down. This was a fairly gentle low side wipe out and not a tank slapper. It looks like Miguel Oliveira went down and is back up and in the race again.
We were watching a strong battle for fourth place between Jack Miller, Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli, and Takaaki Nakagami before all that other action happened. Yes. It comes up on the television screen that Aleix Espargaro has crashed in turn two. It is game over, perhaps, for the Gresini Aprilia rider. Rossi is opening a margin, meanwhile, over the third place scrum that we can see between Vinales, Miller, and Bagnaia. Bagnaia is pouring on the steam now, look. He's rocketing up on Vinales! Will he nab him before the braking zone into the next turn? I was about to say, no, but look at Bagnaia! It's "Francesco the Flyer!" Maybe that will be a nickname for him. He's diving on the inside of Vinales in the center of the corner!
Will you look at that! He made the pass stick! This race has been so exciting, we're already on lap 11. Yours truly has not even been counting laps and this motorcycle race will be half over on the next one. That's how exhilarating the action has been. Oh no! There's a crash in turn nine. We've got a rider going one way and the bike going the other. It's one of the Pramac Ducati's, and it's Danilo Petrucci who just crashed out. He low sided the bike and wiped out in the gravel. It could be game over from here. Actually, Petrucci is just on a Ducati Team bike, but I think he just went off.
Timing and scoring indicates it was Petrucci who fell off. Half distance and Bagnaia puts a move on Rossi for second. Look out! There's another wreck! It's another KTM, over and out, and this time it's Brad Binder, the South African rider who is team mates at the KTM factory squad with Pol Espargaro. He put his knee down, and the bike just spits him off! It's like riding a bull. When the bull doesn't want the cowboy on his back, he just rolls him right off, and here, it's like the old 500cc days where an ill handling motorcycle would just fling a rider over the handlebars and into orbit. Binder is going for a ride!
He lands hard on his side in the gravel trap, praying that the bike won't land on top of him! That one gives you the shivers watching the replay. Game over for Binder. Lap 17, and also game over for #21 Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas SRT Yamaha. He's just coasting. What happened there? My best guess is that the electronics system on the motorcycle is playing up and it just shuts it down. He either has a gearbox full of neutrals or the engine just shut down unexpectedly because of an electronic default. Morbidelli pulls to the side of the track, and it's a DNF for the Italian. Speaking of DNF's we have more mechanical misery and mayhem. There's blue smoke billowing from the tailpipe of a Ducati.
Halfway through the race and Bagnaia's bike is smoking. That looks like blue oil smoke. It's probably blown a ring or gasket seal and is puking oil out the back all over the place. The marshals best get a slippery surface flag, the yellow flag with red lines. Meanwhile, the Monster Energy Yamaha boys are in a ding dong battle all their own. Vinales shoots down the inside of Rossi. But "The Doctor" is going to give his team mate a dose of his own medicine. As this battle rages, the Ducati with the blown motor chugs its way into retirement. Francesco Bagnaia, head in his hands, can't believe it!
That's the emotion of racing at a top level like this, especially in MotoGP. These guys are the equivalent of Formula 1 drivers, just on two wheels. Vinales is going to try Rossi again! He's right on the rear tire of bike #46. Rossi slams the door in his face at the end of the backstretch at 290 kilometers an hour! That's 181 miles an hour for non metric measurement users, if you are keeping score at home. Vinales, I believe is in his second year at Yamaha and he's in no mood to give anything to "The Doctor". He's a real scrapper, and here he comes! He is on the outside, look. Bish, bash, bosh, he makes the pass.
Rossi is not going to play dead here. The old dog still has fight in him. Meantime, none of these shenanigans are going to bug Fabio Quatararo. Fabs, is fabulous, and he's going to sweep up for a second straight week, in Andalusia! Break out the broom! Fabio Quartararo wins again in Spain!
#20 Fabio Quartararo FRA. Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamahaz YZM R1
Quartararo says it was the hardest race of his life because it was so hot. In the hot air, the riders can barely breathe. You have the ambient heat, and the heat coming off the engine and the bikes around you. The blokes of MotoGP have earned their money today in Andalusia. The next MotoGP race is in two weeks, at the Brno Autodrom in Brno, Czech Republic. Join us there, for more action packed MotoGP mayhem. Adios from Andalusia, everyone. Take care.
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