MotoGP Catalan GP 2020 Winners And Losers

For the first time since the second round of the 2020 MotoGP season, Fabio Quartararo was on the top of the podium as a race winner. Winning the Catalan GP put him back in the lead of the riders’ championship but a late race charge by Suzuki’s Joan Mir and Alex Rins hints at a twist in the race for the title. 

Winners

Fabio Quartararo - After scoring a maximum of 50 points from the first two rounds of the championship, Quartararo managed just 23 points in the next five races. To say that his win at the Catalan GP was overdue would be an understatement. A welcome 25 points for the win takes the Petronas Yamaha rider’s points tally to 108 and puts him at the top of the championship. 

Joan Mir - Despite not having won a race so far, Suzuki’s Joan Mir is second in the riders’ championship, just eight points behind Quartararo. The key to Mir’s exceptional run - four podiums in the last five races - has been the race pace of the Suzuki GSX-RR. While his qualifying performances have been mediocre, the sight of Mir slicing through the field has become a common one of late. It would be an incredible development if Mir manages to snatch the championship from Quartararo. And given how unpredictable 2020 has been, anything can happen. 

Suzuki - Having spoken of Mir, it would be a perfect segue to talk about Team Suzuki Ecstar. Joan Mir and Alex Rins flew past Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbideli to finish second and third at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Suzuki’s first double podium since 2007 puts Suzuki Ecstar second in the teams’ championship. Petronas Yamaha lead, but by just 25 points. Is it possible to see an upset in both the riders’ and teams’ championship?

Losers

Andrea Dovizioso - The factory Ducati rider was expected to lose the one point championship lead he held over Quartararo coming into the Catalan GP. Even then it was a surprise to see the Italian crash out of the race in its early stages and drop 24 points behind the Petronas Yamaha rider. Dovizioso is still unemployed for the 2021 season and his spill would do his reputation no good.

Maverick Vinales - After proving his doubters wrong by winning the last round from pole position, the factory Yamaha rider seemed to be back to his disappointing ways. Mired in the midfield, Vinales made slow progress to ninth place by the end of the race to fall 18 points behind Quartararo in the championship. The Spaniard was tied with Quartararo on 83 points prior to the Catalan GP.

Valentino Rossi - The seven time premier class champion seemed to be having a pretty good Catalan GP until raceday. First came the news of the Italian getting a seat at the Petronas Yamaha team for 2021 then he qualified third on the starting grid. Rossi briefly ran in second place before being passed by his VR46 graduate and future teammate Franco Morbidelli. He then inexplicably crashed out of the race, his second retirement in succession, while he was in third place. Given Joan Mir and Alex Rins’ pace, it was unlikely that he would have finished third to score his 200th premier class podium. However, his fans would still have preferred him to have finished the race rather than head back to the pits despondently.