The last race of the MotoGP season took place in Barcelona this weekend. Jorge Martin is crowned champion. Here’s a recap of the weekend for the two French riders before a well-deserved rest.
After the cancellation of the Valencia Grand Prix due to deadly floods in the region, the final round of MotoGP took place in Barcelona. All the funds raised will be donated to help the victims. The suspense for the title lasted until the final moments, but Jorge Martin eventually secured the title. As for Fabio Quartararo and Johann Zarco, the end of the season was not different from the other races.
No miracle for the 2021 champion
This year’s Yamaha was no easy ride for Fabio Quartararo. He finished eleventh in free practice 1. The sessions didn’t go much better with a slim fourteenth place, so he had to go through Q1. He also finished fourteenth in free practice 2. For qualifying, he made the second-best time in Q1 and thus moved on to Q2. He managed to position himself tenth for both races.
In the sprint race, the start went very well for the rider from Nice as he immediately climbed to sixth position. Pedro Acosta lost a part of his bike, which caused him to go wide and helped Fabio Quartararo in his climb. But Marc Márquez and then Aleix Espargaró overtook him on the second lap, dropping him to eighth. The lack of grip was felt as he continued to drop in the rankings with an overtaking from Marco Bezzecchi. He was thus ninth. A group of four riders formed on the ninth lap, and the tires finally seemed to work for Fabio Quartararo. He overtook Marco Bezzecchi again, leading to a battle between the two. The battle was won by the Italian rider, and Brad Binder even passed the Frenchman in the eleventh lap. He therefore finished in tenth place.
As for the race, Fabio Quartararo didn’t have the best start as he lost two positions. He regained a spot from Joan Mir in the first lap, and a battle ensued between the two for several laps before “El Diablo” took the lead. He finished eleventh.
A costly mistake
Johann Zarco’s weekend was also in line with those of this year. He finished fifteenth in free practice 1. However, during practice, he clocked a very good fourth time and thus moved directly to Q2. Free practice 2 was less successful with an eighteenth place. For qualifying, he finished twelfth. The start of the sprint race was average for the Cannes native as he lost a position. He managed to overtake Raúl Fernández on the third lap and regained his initial position. He overtook Joan Mir on the tenth lap. A warning for exceeding track limits came to the LCR Honda rider on this same lap. He finished in eleventh place.
A catastrophic start for the race saw him drop to twentieth place in just one turn. He regained a position in the first lap from his teammate and then from Raul Fernández. Two laps later, Raúl Fernández overtook him. Joan Mir crashed on the seventh lap, so Johann Zarco gained a position, putting him in p17. He eventually overtook Maverick Viñales and then Augusto Fernández, claiming the fifteenth place. He finished in the fourteenth place.
Championship update
Jorge Martin is thus the MotoGP 2024 champion with 508 points, ten points ahead of Francesco Bagnaia. Marc Márquez completes the podium with 392 points. Fabio Quartararo finishes thirteenth with a total of 113 points. Johann Zarco, on the other hand, finishes seventeenth with 55 points.
