VOLUME 59 ISSUE 10 MARCH 8, 2022 P79
on it was all about staying in the lead and
take the win home. It's hard to express
my feelings now, but I want to dedicate
the win to Fausto because he gave me
incredible motivation from above."
Binder was another star of the race as
the South African rocketed off the third row
of the grid to be fourth by turn one as the
Repsol Hondas made the early running.
Binder came on strong on the last lap and
very nearly got Bastianini on the line, but
his second place was just reward after a dif-
ficult preseason where KTM's pace wasn't
evident in relation to the competition. It was
KTM's first top-six result at Qatar.
Third went to Pol Espargaro who used
the double soft/soft tire combination to
lead for three quarters of the race until
Bastianini roared past at turn one. Espar-
garo immediately ran off track after out-
braking himself and slotted back behind
Binder in third, a position he held to the
flag despite increasing pressure from
his brother Aleix on the factory Aprilia. It
was an excellent race from Espargaro,
who confirmed the progress made by the
Honda factory over the winter.
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE AND MOTOGP.COM
E
nea Bastianini (Gresini Racing
Ducati) had the finest day of his
young MotoGP career in Qatar,
taking a maiden class victory in tribute to
former team owner Fausto Gresini, who
passed away in 2021 due to Covid-19.
Bastianini was sublime under the
desert floodlights, starting from second
on the grid and slowly working his way
past Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Brad
Binder (Red Bull KTM) and long-time race
leader Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda) to
seal an emotional victory, the first for the
Gresini team since Toni Elias took the
2006 Portuguese MotoGP at Estoril.
"I pushed hard from the start, but the
most important thing was to save the tire
for the end of the race," Bastianini said. "I
saw Pol [Espargaro] pushing hard at the
front, but I managed to overtake Binder
and then at the end, once I got very close
to Pol, I realized that I could try to win the
race. I passed him down the straight at
turn one and he went wide, so from then
FIRST FOR
FAUSTO
In what was an incredibly emotional race, Enea Bastianini
claimed his first MotoGP race victory and dedicated
it to the memory of his late team owner Fausto Gresini
