Spanish MotoGP: Marc Marquez suffers broken arm as Fabio Quartararo claims maiden win

Marquez was taken to hospital after his crash

World champion Marc Marquez suffered a broken arm in the season-opening Spanish MotoGP as Frenchman Fabio Quartararo won his maiden race.

The Spaniard crashed out with four laps to go in Jerez after he had recovered from earlier sliding into the sand.

The 27-year-old will have surgery in Barcelona on Tuesday on his right humerus bone.

It is not yet clear how long he will be out for, but the second race of the season takes place next week in Jerez.

After the race he tweeted that he would now have an operation on the fracture and would "come back as soon as possible".

Spain's Maverick Vinales finished second behind Quartararo with Andrea Dovizioso of Italy third just two weeks after having a shoulder operation.

Britain's Cal Crutchlow missed the race after crashing in the warm-up.

Crutchlow, who had qualified sixth, suffered concussion and neck trauma and the 34-year-old LCR Honda rider, the only full-time Briton in the sport, was later declared unfit to race. On Sunday evening his team confirmed he had fractured a bone in his left wrist.

Marquez had come off the track and into the sand on lap four while leading, but somehow managed to remain upright and rejoined the field, battling his way up from 14th to third before the crash ended his race.

Although he walked away with the help of track marshals, he was clearly in pain after being hit by his bike and was later put in a neck brace before being taken to a medical centre for X-rays.

His Honda team later confirmed he had suffered a broken arm and said he would remain under observation for 12 hours.

Quartararo is the first Frenchman to win a premier class race for more than 20 years.

"It's the most beautiful day of my life," said the delighted 21-year-old afterwards.

"It felt amazing but strange to realise it because you [usually] have the fans around the track.

"We need to enjoy today a lot because it's not every day that you have your first MotoGP victory and from tomorrow we will focus on next week's race."

The Yamaha satellite rider started from pole but saw his lead taken by Marquez early on before the Spaniard's first trip into the sand.

Once he regained the lead, Quartararo controlled matters comfortably, finishing more than four seconds ahead of Vinales.

The MotoGP season had been due to start in Qatar in March but was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Results

1. Fabio Quartararo (Fra/Yamaha-SRT) 41:23.796

2. Maverick Vinales (Spa/Yamaha) at 4.603

3. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita/Ducati) at 5.946

4. Jack Miller (Aus/Ducati-Pramac) at 6.668

5. Franco Morbidelli (Ita/Yamaha-SRT) at 6.844

6. Pol Espargaro (Spa/KTM) at 6.938

7. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita/Ducati-Avintia) at 13.027

8. Miguel Oliveira (Por/KTM) at 13.441

9. Danilo Petrucci (Ita/Ducati) at 19.651

10. Takaaki Nakagami (Jpn/Honda-LCR) at 21.553