Quartararo: “What went wrong? Everything. Every year we lose strong points”
He won consecutive grands prix at Jerez in back-to-back weekends in 2020, and fought at the front in 2021 and 2022 too.
But he was merely 16th-fastest in Friday practice. Quartararo was eighth tenths behind Aleix Espargaro, who was fastest, and was left bemoaning his chances.
The 2021 MotoGP champion said: “Difficult to say what was wrong. But, I mean, everything!
“Every time I was going into a corner, I didn’t know if I was going to finish it.
“In the last lap I was improving, but feeling on the limit. But the last lap I did okay. Whatever happened, happened. And at Turn 7 I lost the front and went wide.
“The problem is that we don’t know why we are that slow. And, the bike is super aggressive, we are missing turning. So it’s difficult.
“To be honest, every year we are losing our strong points from the past.
“I’d say the turning and corner speed we had four years ago was better, more stability. That’s what we lose.
“And actually here the top speed is not so bad because you come from a fast corner so you don’t have so much wheelie and it helps.
“But it’s not only that, the problem is many, many other things and this is one of them. The corner speed we are carrying is not good and the bike is super aggressive.
“Not because we are going so fast and it is aggressive but we are not going so fast and we are shaking a lot.
“In the morning I think we were a little bit better. But let’s say we will have to figure it out [overnight] why we are struggling that much, where we lose because we still didn’t have time to really check right now.
“So [Friday night] we’re going to check exactly where we lose and hopefully we will find a solution.
“And even my riding style, for sure. I can modify many things at least to try to be better.
“It is bad to say this, but even on the pace we are not good.
“If the pace was good and time attack was bad, you can still manage.
“The pace is bad because with a new tyre I was slower than many guys. So at the moment today it is impossible to make the kind of race like last year.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
