The Austrian Grand Prix crowns Pecco Bagnaia, who wins the third consecutive race confirming the dominance of the Ducatis at the Red Bull Ring. However, the “Red Army” does not dominate unchallenged in the race as previously thought, because Fabio Quartararo is disturbing the hegemony. The reigning world champion once again shows his worth and in the decisive moment he shows up, going to conquer a second position that almost smells of victory.
Quartararo’s weekends are never easy and the Frenchman is forced to fight against the limits of a Yamaha in pain compared to the other bikes. In Styria, however, he overturned all predictions once again and asserted himself by increasing the advantage in the standings even more over his direct rival Aleix Espargaro.
In fact, El Diablo leaves Austria and heads to Misano as championship leader, with a 32-point advantage over the Aprilia rider, while Bagnaia, despite his triumph, only gnaws 5 points from him. The rider from Nice thus not only limits the damage, but is definitely dangerous even on tracks where he is suffering. Pecco was in management in the final, but Quartararo got close enough in the last laps to cross the finish line with a delay of just under half a second: “Pecco is the strongest rival, he has obtained five victories. He is the main opponent, but the thing I liked today is seeing where we have arrived on a track that is favorable to Ducati ”.
“I’m very happy with today”, Quartararo continues, explaining that he changed his strategy just before the start. “From Friday morning to today I have been with the Ducatis and the race was tough. To overtake you have to wait for someone to make a mistake and this didn’t allow me to get close to Pecco a little earlier. But I’m happy because we had a really good race. I decided on the tires five minutes before the start, we had opted for hard and soft but then we switched to hard and medium. I didn’t want to play it again like Silverstone, so we went for the safe choice. Maybe the soft one was fine, but better this way ”.
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The most incredible moment of Fabio Quartararo’s race was undoubtedly the overtaking at the chicane against Jack Miller, valid for the second position that he never left until the checkered flag. Even the Frenchman himself is surprised: “Overtaking was really difficult, because in the end I didn’t expect it. I braked a little too late, he braked a little earlier than usual and I said to myself ‘come on, he certainly doesn’t expect it’. I am very happy to be aggressive like this. Even when I saw a small mistake on Bastianini I did what I had to do ”.
However, he recognizes how difficult it is to complete a pass on his Yamaha: “Nobody knows how much I am suffering, I have a lot of effort, I don’t know if you see as much as I do, but it is a great suffering. I am struggling to find the point to overtake and it is incredible that I did it at the chicane. Actually I had no other solution, it was very important to overtake Miller. Overtaking is the aspect I struggle the most with, I can’t prepare them, I can’t make a difference and I often risk falling. But I’m happy because I was very focused and I didn’t lose my reflexes, this is important ”.
Now comes Misano, the track where he mathematically won his first title last year (in the second race. After the San Marino Grand Prix there will also be two days of testing, fundamental for the rest of the season. Quartararo is present at the Romagna appointment. with a lot of determination but also with a good deal of confidence: “I leave Austria with a lot of confidence and I think that with the hull we have we can go fast at Misano”.
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