MotoGP Qatar GP: Gresini’s Bastianini takes emotional maiden victory

Having put plans in place to return to being a true independent team again in MotoGP for 2022 after partnering with Aprilia’s factory effort since 2015, double 125cc world champion Fausto Gresini died in February last year after a lengthy battle with COVID-19.

With his widow Nadia Padovani taking over as team owner and team principal, Gresini Racing elected to push on with its 2022 plans and partnered with Ducati to field 2021-spec bikes for Bastianini and rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio.

And in emotional scenes, Bastianini took his first win in MotoGP for the Gresini squad in its first race back as an independent team.

Poleman Jorge Martin got a shocking launch off the line and dropped to eighth, as Pol Espargaro got the better of Honda team-mate Marc Marquez to take the lead from sixth on the grid.

Fitted with the soft front and rear Michelin tyre, the factory Honda duo ran one and two in the early stages – Espargaro keeping his six-time world champion at bay when Marquez ran into Turn 1 too hot in his attempt to take the lead on lap two.

Another excursion out wide at Turn 1 allowed KTM’s Brad Binder to come through on Marquez on the sixth tour, with Espargaro’s lead opening up to six tenths.

Further down the order reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo had jumped from 11th to seventh on the underpowered factory Yamaha, but would soon be shuffled back to 10th as the recovering Ducati’s of Pramac’s Martin and Francesco Bagnaia – who was 14th at the end of lap one – came back into the top 10.

Pol Espargaro, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia’s factory Ducati team-mate Jack Miller similarly dropped through the pack on the opening lap and would end up in dead last before retiring at the