France takes advantage of Spain's worst moment in MotoGP since 2006

June 9, 2021

France is going through its sweetest moment in MotoGP. After seven grand prix, Fabio Quartararo is leading the championship and Johann Zarco is second, 14 points behind. El Diablo has rung La Marseille in three races and has been on the podium once again, while the Pramac Ducati rider has four second places so far in 2021 . In addition, the Yamaha rider has taken the last five pole positions.

These numbers already make the current season the best in history in the queen category of the neighboring country. From the creation of the championship in 1949 until Quartararo’s arrival in MotoGP in 2019 they had barely achieved three victories, the same as #20 achieved in 2020 and so far in 2021. In terms of podiums, the roof of France was in the seven made by Nice in his rookie year. Quartararo’s explosion and Zarco’s change of team have done the Gauls very well.

All French victories in 500cc/MotoGP

Year	Big prize	Pilot
1954	France	Pierre Monneret
1985	Germany	Christian Sarron
1999	Valencia	Regis Laconi
2020	Spain	fabio quartararo
2020	Andalusia	fabio quartararo
2020	Catalonia	fabio quartararo
2021	Doha	Fabio Quartararo
2021	Portugal	fabio quartararo
2021	Italy	Fabio Quartararo

On the opposite side is Spain . After the withdrawals of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, the loss of Marc Márquez was a blow in 2020. Although Joan Mir deservedly proclaimed himself world champion, the Suzuki rider only got one victory and Spain closed the course with only two more , by Maverick Viñales and Álex Rins.

2021 has not started much better. The Honda rider has not returned to his best level and to date has been far from his usual numbers. Although Viñales started the season in Qatar winning, since then the balance has not been very positive. After seven Grand Prix, only Jorge Martín and Mir – twice – have been on the podium.

This balance is even lower than that of Spain last year. At this point, Viñales had already won once and had another podium, Mir had three and Pol Espargaró had two. To see something worse, you have to go back to 2006, when Pedrosa made his debut in MotoGP and had one victory and two drawers in seven participations.

Spain has won the last 10 consecutive MotoGP titles, since Casey Stoner was proclaimed world champion in 2011. For the first time in a decade, the threat of breaking that streak is real. The best Spaniard in the standings is Mir, fifth, 37 points behind the lead. Last year he already traced a disadvantage of 48.