Leaderboard unlocked
Eighth place at the finish linefirst of the Japanese motorcycles behind the swarm of Europeans – Ducati, Aprilia and KTM – in a World Championship that by now seems to have completely reversed in terms of values compared to what has been seen for decades. Fabio Quartararo after the tenth place obtained in yesterday’s Sprint, which did not earn him any championship points, he takes home one meager haul of eight pointsuseful for moving the championship standings but certainly not for leaving Portugal with a smile on his lips.
Yamaha not up to par
The Frenchman, world champion in 2021 and vice-champion last year behind Pecco Bagnaia, is in fact continuing his very personal ‘via Crucis’ riding the Yamaha M1, once again appearing unable to keep up with the top bikes. “The pace I had was not bad – declared the centaur from Nice to the microphones of Sky Sports MotoGP – but I expected to go much better at the start“. Yesterday it was Joan Mir who ruined his race with a decidedly out of time entry. Today instead the problems were all with his bike.
Impossible to battle
“We drove to the limit, but we don’t have a performance like the others – sentenced a Quartararo who appeared already resigned to a championship to live uphill – we have the speed, but we can do nothing to fight. Starting from the front row would have made the difference, especially for us who struggle to overtake. Fighting for a podium or a top-5 from a front or second row would have been possible, but we need to improve our flying lap“.
Betrayed by a friendly lead
To exacerbate the concern of the Yamaha Diablo there is the fact that yesterday and today we raced in Portimao, a track historically a friend of Quartararo who won there in 2021 and 2022. “Now it’s always difficult to be able to battle with others – concluded the Frenchman – Today we had the Bezzecchi pass, but in the end we made it far. This is worrying, also because I’ve always gone fast here and the track is close to the characteristics of the Yamaha. Now we have to find a solution“.
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