A place has prevented Fabio Quartararo from adding his first point of the season. the french pilot finished in tenth position in the sprint race of the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Yamaha rider had to recover positions during the 12 laps after falling to the bottom of the standings in the first few laps.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider did not like the first sprint race of the year, as he claimed it was more dangerous than it initially seemed. Quartararo already knows in which areas he will have to work for the next appointments of the calendar, where he hopes to start in a few more forward positions.
At the end of the race, the French rider spoke to the press and admitted that he had a problem with his bike at the start, which caused him to lose positions: “At first I had a problem with the start control. I lost a lot of positions when I got into second gear. Also, then Mir touched me and I found myself behind. The pace was good, we have collected useful information. We need to improve on the fastest lap if we want to start further up the grid.”
Fabio Quartararo prefers to make a positive reading of what happened on the Portimao track, where by riding behind several riders he has really learned the limitations of his Yamaha: “I was able to closely analyze what our weak points were. In some areas we do not behave badly, but en this track we can’t reap the benefits”.
The incorporation of the race to the sprint has not finished convincing him, especially due to the aggressiveness that has occurred on the track. According to the Frenchman, the approach to the race encourages more accidents to occur due to the pressure of achieving a good result in a few laps: “I do not like, at this rate there is going to be a big accident, today was like a jungle. We are not in Formula 1, where we can continue with the race even if there is a collision between cars. Today it happened to Marini and Bastianini, in the future there will be other accidents. You can be aggressive, it’s not a problem. In fact, in the end I collided several times with Alex Márquez, that’s how races are. I’m talking about the management of the first few laps, which was crazy. We are on bikes that react differently and are difficult to control”.
Criticism of the sprint race has not been long in coming and Franco Morbidelli’s teammate has not been slow to assert that it is better to incorporate two long races to encourage activity on the track: “I am not surprised by certain attitudes. Although it is tough in terms of physical stamina, For safety, the ideal would be to contest two races of 20 to 25 laps each. So if you want, you have the necessary time to recover ground. In the Sprint Race you are screwed”.
“We do not have the power of decision”he commented emphatically, assuring that the organization does not value the opinion of the pilots: “Who decides? They (Dorna). We do a lot of things, but we always make changes after something happens. In the end, it’s useless. I am free to speak.”
Facing tomorrow’s race, the Frenchman hopes to improve his sensations on the bike, so he will have to get a good start if he wants to have podium options: “It will be a different race. The first three are strong today and I think we can go another way, especially at the start. youWe have to be aggressive to maintain and try to win the podium step”, Quartararo concluded.