There are few beings more pleasant, more sympathetic, more welcoming in the MotoGP paddock than the young french fabio quartararo (Yamaha)23, current world champion in the highest category and leader of the 2022 World Cup, which resumes its activity this weekend after a long month of vacation.
The ‘Diablo’as everyone affectionately knows him from his time in the small categories in the Spanish championships where he competed when he was 14, 15 and 16 years old, leads the championship with 172 points, 21 more than the Catalan veteran Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia)authentic revelation of the World Cup, 58 more than the also French johann zarco (Ducati) and 66 more than the one who started as the great favorite for the title, the Italian Pecco Bagnaia, leader of the powerful firm Ducati.
Grateful to Spain
Quartararo, who was recently the protagonist of an extensive report on DAZN by Izaskun Ruiz, is the first to acknowledge that, before the start of the World Cup, he also thought that Bagnaia would be the number one rival who would try to take the title from him.
“He has lost a lot of points, yes, but Pecco, who won in Assen before we went on holiday, I think he is still very dangerous.” There is no doubt, as most people in the World Cup think, that Espargaró “is the most constant, the most regular in all the circuits and, above all, the one who is always up there, hanging around near the podium, which is very important if you want to claim the title. So I think that Aleix is still, without a doubt, the most fearsome of the pursuers.”
In that same piece, the young French rider, who is very grateful for everything that Spanish motorcycling and Spain has contributed to his training, as a person and a rider, assures that “With whom I have learned the most or from whom I have learned the most has been from Marc Márquez). You beat Marc for 25 laps and you try not to make mistakes and, really, you finish the race having learned a lot, a lot. I’ve learned a lot competing against Marc and I still have a lot more to learn”.
“If you spend 25 laps behind Marc Márquez and don’t make mistakes, you learn a lot, a lot”
It is possible that even the mentality of the ‘Devil’ has changed in the last two or three years. “Yes, definitely. Before, when I had a handful of points ahead of the second, I used to race thinking more about the World Cup than about the race and, now, the truth is that I think more about winning on Sunday, than about the points for the general championship . I think that having already been a champion gives you that serenity and even daring and also being a leader, of course”.
needless to say Quartararo does not believe that he has already won the championship and renewed his title “far from it”. What’s more, the ‘Devil’ is one of those who thinks that when you begin to believe that you are already a champion is when you begin to lose. “I didn’t get a win out of Aleix. I failed in another race, as happened to me recently in Assen, and Aleix wins again and already beats me. No, no, there are nine grand prizes left, 225 points, imagine, an eternity! and we all have to fight hard, different circuits, different adaptations, different weather conditions, a lot of winning official bikes and, above all, more and more riders winning races”.