ROUND 16 / SEPTEMBER 23-25, 2022
TWIN RING MOTEGI / MOTEGI, JAPAN
P106
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
(Red Bull KTM Ajo) by just over
a second after 22 laps around
the Mobility Resort Motegi with
Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed
Up) third.
It was heartbreak for Aron
Canet, as the Spaniard, on
course for his first Moto2 race
win, crashed while leading on
lap four after having built up a
Moto2
Ai Ogura closed the gap to two
points at the top of the Moto2
World Championship after be-
coming the first Japanese rider
to win a Grand Prix on home soil
since Hiroshi Aoyama in 2006.
The Idemitsu Honda Team
Asia rider headed champion-
ship leader Augusto Fernandez
QUARTARARO'S ZIPPER
FAIL EXPLAINED
Aside from clattering into the
back of Marc Marquez and suffer-
ing his second DNF of the year,
Fabio Quartararo's Aragon GP
was notable for another reason.
The Frenchman's leathers came
undone in the fall, opened and left
him sliding across asphalt on the
outside of the track with his chest
exposed. The 23-year-old had
multiple abrasions on his abdo-
men, thankfully none of them deep
or serious. After further investiga-
tion, leather manufacturer Alpin-
estars found Quartararo's airbag
had deployed correctly. Yet as he
fell back first onto the asphalt, his
chest was struck with some force
by the front wheel of his bike. As
the leathers were already stretched
by the contact with the asphalt, the
zipper was stressed to levels the
Italian company had never previ-
ously seen. Quartararo said the
injuries weren't affecting him on the
bike on day one at Motegi. "It was
a little bit strange in the beginning
because it burns a little bit, but
after the first few laps you adapt
and is nothing. So, it don't affect
my riding," he said.
Briefly...
Pecco Bagnaia's (63) error was a
very costly one, indeed. He'll need to
dig deep to pull back those 18 points
with four rounds to go.
