Quartararo, Gardner, Acosta take home world champion medals at FIM awards

MotoGP world champions from the past two years, Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir have collected their winners’ medals as the FIM Gala awards made it’s return in Monaco. 

Quartararo, the 2021 world champion for Monster Energy Yamaha was also joined by fellow world champions in Moto2 and Moto3, Remy Gardner and Pedro Acosta - both of the Red Bull KTM Ajo team. 

Quartararo was the first rider from all three classes to wrap up his title after doing so in Misano when title rival Francesco Bagnaia crashed from the lead with six laps remaining. 

For new MotoGP rookie Gardner, the event was a reminder of his incredible success as he narrowly beat team-mate Raul Fernandez to the intermediate class title. 

In Moto3, Acosta wrapped his rookie season with the world championship in Portimao after LeOpard racing’s Dennis Foggia was taken out by new MotoGP rider Darryn Binder. 

Other Grand Prix riders to accept awards from the last two seasons included 2020 Moto2 champion Enea Bastianini who came close to winning MotoGP rookie of the year honour this season, while 2020 Moto3 champion Albert Arenas was also in attendance to receive his medal.

It wasn’t just MotoGP stars that were on stage as new WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu picked up his medal after claiming Yamaha’s second ever title - first in 12 years. 

Razgatlioglu also became the first ever premier class world champion from Turkey after bettering six-time Superbike champion Jonathan Rea. 

Like with Mir, Rea also collected his 2020 winners’ medal after beating Scott Redding to the title. 

This was the first time since 2019 that the FIM awards went ahead as the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a cancellation 12 months ago. 

The FIM Gala awards was the last official event of 2021 for both MotoGP and WorldSBK as testing at the start of February at the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, is next up for MotoGP.