Fabio Quartararo continues to fight like a lion, at the Red Bull Ring he gave a great show of strength by scoring his best performance since his return from the MotoGP summer break in the Sunday race. Despite the gap collected, a full 19 seconds behind the winner Pecco Bagnaia, the Frenchman battled with his rivals throughout the race, finishing in eighth position.
A result that the Yamaha rider somehow expected, considering what he said yesterday. “I felt I had the pace to be between fifth and seventh position,” he said. Undoubtedly however that is not quite what El Diablo he wants, as he says today: “In the end, to be honest, in the first part of the season I wasn’t even motivated. I fought for the world championship for three consecutive seasons and now I’m fighting for points. The motivation wasn’t there, but now I accept fighting for these positions to try and have some fun”.
“I give my 100% so I’m happy with what I saw, but at the start of the race the grip I had was very low. Then I lost a lot of positions, I made mistakes, I pushed a lot on the tires and destroyed them. Tire pressure? It increased a bit when I was behind the other riders, but it didn’t really bother me. We clearly saw the negative points of the bike, so we really saw the difference with the others. The only positive aspect of the race is that we saw where we need to improve”.
Quartararo then goes into detail, reiterating that the engine is the aspect that most requires intervention to make progress: “There are areas in which we need to improve much more than others, but the engine is number one, we lose a lot in acceleration, and also with the grip in the early laps. We have almost half a second a lap in the engine alone at this circuit, so it’s still huge.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The start of the race was particularly difficult, but something recovered in the final stages: “I gain positions, but I lose a lot at the start and I wear out all the tyre, I don’t have any left. It’s not the way I would like to ride this bike, but it’s the only way to be with them. When they manage to keep the tires to the limit and re-accelerate with the bike upright, we have to pick up speed because we don’t have an engine. There are a lot of complications that get us into trouble”:
“It’s honestly frustrating,” he continues. “It’s not the result I wanted, but ultimately at the beginning of the weekend I said I’d be happy if I gave 100% and that’s what I did, so even if it’s a result I don’t like at all, I’m still happy with all the work we’ve done this weekend”.
Pecco Bagnaia, on the other hand, is experiencing a moment of great glory, author of a double win in Austria and undisputed leader of the championship with a 62-point lead (more than a race weekend) over the second, Jorge Martin. According to Quartararo, no one can beat him now: “Pecco is a bit like Verstappen now! He has the best bike, but you can also have the best bike and not get results. He is a whole, and now it seems that now this whole gives him confidence. When you win that much you feel unstoppable, he makes everything look easy, that’s the feeling he gives. At the moment I don’t see anyone who can really be faster than him.”
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