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MYOWNRACE 93 MARC MARQUEZ 5TH MOTOGP "Honestly speaking, the pace today was just too fast, the speed coming from Pol and the guys at the front was amazing," Marquez said. "I did my maximum today and managed everything we had to; it's the start of a new season and I thought to start with a top five is good for today. Today was not our day as I was struggling with the front re, so we kept calm. Of course, we need to keep working. I am happy for Pol and really happy for Honda HRC, this result shows all the work they have been doing and the poten al of this new bike." ROUND 1 / MARCH 4-6, 2022 LOSAIL INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT / DOHA, QATAR P82 MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP converted pole position into a dominant victory at the Grand Prix of Qatar to take an early lead in the Moto2 World Cham- pionship. The Italian beat Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) by a whopping 6.154 seconds, the duo also finishing comfort- ably up the road from third-place Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team). The Brit stayed cool and profited from late drama between Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Ai Ogura (Idemit- su Honda Team Asia) as the two tangled but stayed upright; Ogura lost the front of his Kalex and bashed into Fernandez at the final corner. Incredibly, the impact righted up the crashing Ogura, and he continued to sixth place. Fernandez dropped to fourth at the flag. Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Rac- ing Team) was fifth, with Jorge Navarro have mixed feelings about the opening round of the season as Jack Miller (Leno- vo Ducati) retired early with electronic is- sues on his factory Ducati, and Francesco Bagnaia crashed into the side of pole sitter Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati) at turn one on the 11th lap, taking both out of the race. In the World Championship standings, Bastianini leads for the first time in his MotoGP career with 25 points over Brad Binder's 20 and Pol Espargaro sits third at 16 points. The next round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship will be held at the new Mandalika circuit in Indonesia on March 20. Moto2 Leading from start to finish, Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) Remy Gardner (87) won the battle of the rookies, just edging out the quietly impressive Darren Binder (40).