MAT OXLEY
“Quartararo assumed the title lead in Portugal and never relinquished it”
Finally, France has its first premier-class motorcycle world champion. A hundred and twenty seven years since the world’s first autocycle racer spluttered out of Paris, en route to Rouen, Fabio Quartararo beat all-comers to take the 2021 MotoGP world title.
The 22-year-old from Nice graduated to MotoGP in 2019, via today’s usual route: the Moto3 Junior World Championship and the Moto3 and Moto2 World Championships.
He won his first MotoGP races last year and became title favourite when Marc Márquez broke an arm, which kept the six-time MotoGP champion out for nine months. But Quartararo didn’t win the title. Yamaha’s 2020 YZR-M1 was too sensitive to track conditions, so his season was a rollercoaster ride – three victories and 11 results outside the top six.