2018 Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix: Dovizioso wins the first race of the year

The first race of the 2018 MotoGP World Championship has been won by Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian rider, who had finished second at the Qatar GP, the season opener, on three occasions, has finally been able to shake off that frustration today in a race where we relived one of those Dovi–Márquez duels we saw last season, this time with victory for the Ducati rider.

Dovizioso had been the fastest during Friday’s practice sessions, although pole position went to Zarco. The Frenchman, riding his unofficial Yamaha, led the race for much of its duration, but he pushed his tyres harder than they could handle and ended up paying for it, not only dropping off the podium positions but also falling back to eighth place.

When Dovi got rid of Zarco and took the lead, Marc Márquez quickly latched onto his slipstream. This began a duel that kept spectators on the edge of their seats over the final four laps of the race, with the outcome decided at the last corner, where the Italian rider promptly returned the overtake to the Spanish rider. Rossi, lurking in the background, waited for one of the front two to make a mistake so he could gain one more position, but in the end he settled for a third-place finish on the podium.

And so, Dovizioso, Márquez and Rossi claimed the first podium of the 2018 MotoGP season. Behind Márquez, the best Spanish finisher was Viñales, sixth, ahead of Crutchlow and Petrucci and ahead of Dani Pedrosa. Rabat finished eleventh, Bautista thirteenth, Aleix nineteenth, while Pol Espargaró, Rins and Jorge Lorenzo were unable to finish the race.

The 2018 Qatar GP got underway with the Moto3 riders, and in this class came the first Spanish victory of the year, thanks to Jorge Martín. The young rider from Madrid, the big favourite for the title this season, prevailed ahead of another Spanish rider, Aarón Canet, in a very tight duel that was decided by just two hundredths of a second. The battle for third place between the Italians Dalla Porta and Antonelli was also very close, with the win going to the former.

In the intermediate class, Moto2, the victory went to Italian Francesco Bagnaia, a rider who will be in MotoGP next season. It is not his first win of the season but his first in this class in his career, for this 21-year-old rider, who prevailed in a tight finish over his compatriot Lorenzo Baldasarri. Alex Márquez had some mechanical problems, but salvaged the day well with a third-place finish.

Source | MotoGP