Fabio Quartararo wins easy in Germany after Bagnaia crash

Fabio Quartararo took his third MotoGP 2022 victory at Sachsenring to further increase his lead, as Francesco Bagnaia suffered a second consecutive crash. Quartararo overtook pole sitter Bagnaia when the peloton entered turn 1 for the first time.

Equally keen to establish a lead was Bagnaia, with the Ducati rider diving on the inside of Quartararo at turn 1 on the second lap, although the Italian was unable to pull his Desmosedici and thus allowed the Frenchman to reduce the lead and begin to pull away afterwards.

Disaster was coming for Bagnaia, however, when he lost the rear of his machine on the exit of turn 1 on lap 4, and Quartararo was given a decent lead over Pramac's Johann Zarco.

The reigning premier class world champion nursed his medium compound rear tire for the remainder of the 30-lap contest to cross the line 5s3 ahead of Zarco to further extend his lead.

Zarco had hoped to use the anticipated extra grip from the hard rear rubber in the simmering conditions seen on Sunday at Sachsenring to chase down his French compatriot, although that never materialized and thus left him in a safe second place, well ahead of Ducati rider Jack Miller.

The Australian scored his third podium of the year despite having to take a long lap penalty. The factory Ducati rider forced Aleix Espargaró to make a mistake in the last laps to steal his place.

The Aprilia rider was fourth ahead of VR46's Luca Marini, while Jorge Martin finished sixth on the second Pramac. Honda lost three of its four bikes after Takaaki Nakagami dropped out of the top ten at the start, his LCR teammate Alex Marquez had mechanical problems, and Pol Espargaró apparently dropped out with rib pain - leaving home hero Stefan Bradl as the brand's lone rider in 16th.

Meanwhile, Maverick Viñales saw a potential best result for Aprilia go to waste after his rear device failed to disengage just after the halfway point of the race, with the Spaniard having pushed his teammate Espargaró for third place shortly before.

Quartararo's lead is now 34 points over Espargaró going into next weekend's Dutch GP at Assen, with Zarco now up to third overall but 61 points behind the Yamaha rider.

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