The reigning world champion Quartararo – who announced last Thursday that he had re-signed with Yamaha for two more years – finished training on Friday “worried” about how the low grip of the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona was affecting Yamaha.
But he showed no signs of struggling as he led from flag lights to bolster his championship lead with his second win of the season.
Quartararo took the holeshot from third on the grid, skipping a bad starter Francesco Bagnaia and poleman Aleix Espargaro in the Aprilia.
The Bagnaia race would take just a few more meters when LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami crashed behind him, knocking the Ducati rider with his head while his wandering RC213V bowled to Suzuki’s Alex Rins.
The incident was investigated, but no further action was deemed necessary, and Nakagami was taken to the medical center for precautionary checks.
Bagnaia rode again, but entered the pitlane at the end of the second round: his championship hopes collapsed.
Ducati’s day got worse eight laps when Enea Bastianini crashed for the second consecutive race, with Gresini’s aspirations for the championship suffering a severe blow.
In front, Quartararo, in the open air, quickly began to put the light of day between him and the group behind him in the first lap, when Espargaro was attacked by a rejuvenated Jorge Martin in the Pramac Ducati.
Martin slowed Espargaro on the first corner at the start of the third lap, with Johann Zarco in the sister Pramac GP22 close in fourth.
But Martin could not do anything to save the difference with Quartararo, who was 1.5 seconds ahead at the start of the fourth lap and had that lead up to two seconds at the end of the sixth lap.
Espargaro regained Martin’s second place on lap 1 on lap 10, while Quartararo opened the scoring four seconds behind four laps later.
At this stage of the race, Espargaro’s middle front tire started to cry enough and Martin was able to chase it again, the Pramac rider again took second place on turn 1 on lap 16.
But that position would change hands again, as the friendly nature of the Aprilia with the tires allowed Espargaro to overtake the faded Ducati on the first corner with four laps to go.
Espargaro quickly put space between him and Martin, but Quartararo’s pace never faded as he lowered the checkered flag for more than six seconds.
Quartararo’s day was improved thanks to a sensational mistake by Espargaró, as the Aprilia rider held a comfortable second lap one before, thinking that the race had ended at the end of lap 23.
Espargaro realized his mistake when he greeted his local people through the first corners and quickly passed to Luca Marini of VR46 Ducati on turn 5, but the fifth was all that Espargaro was downed by. his efforts after losing eight seconds on the last lap.
As a result, Martin was second, his first podium from Argentina, while Zarco rose to third.
Joan Mir also benefited from Espargaro’s error, the Suzuki rider made an impressive throw from 17th to sixth on the first lap and grabbed the checkered flag fourth.
Marini overshadowed Espargaro in sixth place, with Maverick Viñales unable to make his soft rear tire bet run in seventh place ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira – who left the track in a trying moment advance to his teammate- and Alex Márquez, who climbed from the last. on the 10th with his Honda LCR.
Remy Gardner placed 11th in the Tec h3 KTM ahead of his debutant teammate Darryn Binder at the Yamaha RNF, with Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha), Jack Miller of Ducati and Raul Fernandez (Tech3) leading the way to the finish line. 15th.
Honda’s Pol Espargaro had a miserable afternoon and was the last rider to finish 17th behind Ducati test driver Michele Pirro, while RNF’s Andrea Dovizioso, Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi nor did they end.
Quartararo is now 22 points behind Espargaro in the championship, with Bastianini drifting 53 and 66 over Bagnaia.