Ecstar Suzuki’s Joan Mir is staring down the barrel of a first MotoGP world title after he bagged his maiden win at Valencia this afternoon while closest title rival Fabio Quartararo crashed and picked up two points after re-mounting.
Mir took the lead from team-mate Alex Rins as the laps to go board clicked to 16 while Quartararo had to rely on other people’s crashes to lift himself back into the points.
The Petronas Yamaha man remains in second by virtue of race wins as Mir opened a gap of 37 points with only 50 left on the table. The Spaniard could be crowned world champion next weekend when the second Valencia race runs its course next Sunday.
Mir finished today’s 27-lapper with a six-tenth gap over Rins after slowing on the final lap while poleman Pol Espargaro claimed third place, crossing the line 1.8s behind Mir’s GSX-RR. The result puts Suzuki on top of the manufacturer championship.
Both Mir and Rins opted for the medium Michelins all round while Espargaro took the hard front - along with 13 other riders - that he hadn’t tried this weekend which was a gamble all round.
Quartararo, meanwhile, also went medium/medium but lost the front at turn 14 on lap one at the same time as Aleix Espargaro but the pair didn’t touch.
It was another disastrous weekend for Yamaha has Maverick Vinales’ title hopes all but vanished down the toilet as he scraped 13th after starting from pitlane. Monster Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi retired on lap four with a bust fuel pump. Franco Morbidelli ended in 11th when his gamble on hard Michelins went badly wrong.
Taka Nakagami was the sole Honda in the top ten as he had a tussle with Miguel Oliveira on the Tech3 KTM. After some early passes, Nakagami eventually shook off the Portugese dentist to open a five-second gap.
Jack Miller again crossed the line as first Ducati but he was chased down hard by Brad Binder who had a long-lap penalty to take as a punishment for nerfing Miller off at Aragon.
The South African eventually finished only ten second off the winner after passing Andrea Dovizioso in the closing stages for seventh place. Johann Zarco took his GP19 to ninth place while Danilo Petrucci came back from the back of the grid to claim tenth on the works Ducati.
HRC test rider followed Morbidelli home with Vinales and Quartararo the last finishers. Cal Crutchlow, Alex Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Lorenzo Savadori all crashed unhurt.
