Italian Enea Bastianini Wins Qatar MotoGP

Doha, March 06 (QNA) - Italian Enea Bastianini, won the Qatar MotoGP the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship 2022 season which concluded its competitions this evening at the Losail International Circuit under the floodlights with the participation of 80 riders of the most prominent world champions. The 25-year-old Bastianini, rider of the Gresini Ducati Racing team, won the title of the main race after he cut the race of 22 laps and 118.36 kilometers, in a time of 42.13.198 minutes, ahead by 0.346 seconds ahead of South African Brad Binder on a KTM with Spaniard Pol Espargaro of Honda third after leading for most of the race. Aleix Espargaro on an Aprilia was fourth ahead of Honda's six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, whos past two seasons have been derailed by injuries. Suzuki duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins failed to replicate their success from Saturday's practice, crossing the line in sixth and seventh respectively. Reigning champion Fabio Quartararo of France finished ninth after a challenging weekend on his Yamaha. Francesco Bagnaia, who came second behind Quartararo last year, crashed his Ducati on lap 12 and took out poleman Jorge Martin's Pramac Ducati. Celestino Vietti of Kalex won the Moto2 race following Andrea Migno's Moto3 victory on his Honda. Bastianini, expressed his great happiness for his first victory in the Qatar Grand Prix, the first round of the MotoGP World Championship, considering that this victory will give him the motivation to continue his journey in the upcoming rounds and compete for the world title this season. The Italian rider, who started from second place, explained that at the beginning of the race he was not in the lead, but he pointed out that the withdrawals benefited him greatly in moving forward, which gave him the motivation to continue focusing in the last laps and maintain the lead and finish the race in first place. With the conclusion of the Qatar Grand Prix, the first round of the MotoGP World Championship, Italian Bastianini topped the overall standings with 25 points, ahead of South African Bender, who came in second with 20 points, while Spaniard Paul came third with 16 points, while the other Spaniard Alex finished fourth with 13 points, Spaniard Marquez completed the list of the top five with 11 points. Indonesia will host the second round of the MotoGP World Championship from March 26 to 28, at Pertamina International Circuit. (QNA)