Alex Marquez got one up over his MotoGP rivals, including his all-conquering brother, before he has even started his first MotoGP race by clinching victory in the inaugural #StayAtHomeGP.
An entertaining substitute of sorts for the lack of motorsport action right now amid the coronavirus pandemic, the online eSports event featured 10 of the current riders in a six-lap sprint at Mugello inspired by the hashtag encouraging people to respect the current lockdown measures enforced in a number of nations right now.
With varying degrees of experience being called upon by the competitors, the race was – perhaps as expected – an entertainingly chaotic filled with thrills, lots of spills and some rather questionable race tactics that would have stewards dishing out penalties every few seconds.
In the end though it was the younger Marquez brother who prevailed as the only rider to stay up for the entirety of the six laps.
The Spaniard’s rather aggressive slice down the middle of Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo earned him the lead from the start, before fending off Bagnaia to the end, the Italian taking a tumble in the closing stages to end his hopes of catching the rookie.
Indeed, if this was a real race then Marquez would have been the only finisher with the frequency of crashes keeping the ‘Crashed’ ticker busy throughout the six laps.
Bagnaia held on for second position, ahead of Maverick Vinales, who was caught out at turn one when Fabio Quartararo tucked the front-end of his Petronas SRT Yamaha and wiped out his stablemate.
Quartararo provided the entertainment value, crashing again on lap two only to regenerate into the path of Aleix Espargaro and be speared off again immediately. He fought back to fourth with the fastest lap, no doubt missing the chance again to get that elusive first win. Marc Marquez was heading for a podium until he crashed to drop him to fifth position… he escaped without hurting that shoulder though.
If for nothing else, the race – complete with living room cams for all 10 riders – was taken seriously but with a pinch of salt, so special mention to Espargaro for having his young family carrying on with their day right behind him, Joan Mir physically moving left and right with every turn on his couch, Vinales getting very animated and a cameo appearance from Alex Rins’ dog.
Also, Iker Lecuona who may have crashed more than he actually raced.
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