Here Are The Winners And Losers Of The Second Misano GP

The second 2021 Misano GP was full of extreme emotions. We thought the championship battle would linger on for another round but it didn’t. We didn’t expect The Doctor to finish as high as he did in his swansong Italian GP. And we got Marc Marquez foreshadowing a threatening 2022 season. To encapsulate the fantastic race weekend, here are the winners and losers from San Marino:

BIGGEST WINNER: Marc Marquez
Marquez silenced his greatest critics by winning his first race around a clockwise circuit since his terrible crash last year. His two race wins earlier this season, at Sachsenring and COTA, were on counter-clockwise circuits, where his injured right arm wasn’t that much of an issue. Marquez hounded the lead Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia for the entirety of the race and was settling for a comfortable second-place finish towards the end of the race. Luckily for him, Pecco crashed out with just a handful of laps to go, handing the win to Marquez on a silver platter. Additionally, he must be relishing the fact that he won the final Italian GP of his great arch nemesis, Valentino Rossi. Marc’s performance should be a worrying sign for his rivals for 2022 as he might just be back to his menacing best once again.

Other Winners
Fabio Quartararo
Right from the start of the season, Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo has been right in the championship mix. He stretched out his advantage before the summer break and since then, has been consistently raking in more points than his championship rivals. Fabio rode a splendid race from 15th on the grid to 4th and looked set to wait until Portimao to seal the title. However, Pecco’s crash instantly crowned him the 2021 MotoGP champion. A slight damper on his race might’ve been the last lap lunge from Ducati’s Enea Bastianini who snatched the final spot on the podium from Fabio, but on the whole, he would not mind losing that podium as much.

Enea Bastianini
If you thought Fabio’s charge through the field was impressive, Bastianini’s was even better. On home soil, Bastianini rode his two-year-old Ducati GP19 from 16th to third, making him the best-placed Ducati rider on the day.

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Pol Espargaro
It wasn’t quite the match made in heaven for Pol Espargaro and Repsol Honda, but he too rode quite a spectacular yet lonely race to finish second. The race was a much-needed positive result for both the rider and team who have been quite criticised for their poor performance in 2021.

BIGGEST LOSER: Francesco Bagnaia
Oh poor Pecco. He didn’t put a foot wrong for nearly the whole race, which is quite remarkable when you’ve got Marquez sniffing your tail. But gambling to use a hard front tyre wasn’t the right choice. His tyres didn’t have enough temperature and as the track started getting cooler towards the end of the race, the front end gave up. Nevertheless, Pecco must be proud of pushing Fabio as much as he did in the championship.

Other Losers
Ducati
Starting with the hard front tyre, Jack Miller too suffered a similar crash as Pecco in the opening phase of the race. What made matters worse for the Italian outfit were the crash of Jorge Martin and the poor performance of Johann Zarco. If Ducati wants to mount a serious title challenge for 2022, they certainly need to be a lot more consistent.

KTM
With three out of the four KTMs retiring and an eleventh-place finish for Brad Binder, is not the outcome that KTM would’ve envisaged for this weekend. Sure, they have not been at their absolute best for the majority of 2021, having struggled to cope with the harsher restrictions now imposed for being a non-concession team. The Austrian manufacturer would look to finish 2021 respectably in the final two races.