Fabio Quartararo ‘has pace’ at Americas MotoGP but ‘not a really good one’
Yamaha rider Quartararo enjoys strong COTA sprint despite Yamaha deficiencies
Fabio Quartararo says Yamaha “have pace” at this weekend’s MotoGP Americas Grand Prix, but “not a really good one” following a strong run to sixth in Saturday’s sprint.
The 2021 world champion was able to come through Q1 to get into the pole shootout battle, though could only qualify 11th as Pramac Yamaha counterpart Jack Miller put his M1 ninth.
A strong start to the 10-lap sprint saw Fabio Quartararo jump up to fourth, with the Frenchman hounding Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia four third in the early stages.
A mistake at Turn 15 as he pushed hard on the front end of his Yamaha to keep pace with the Ducatis dropped him out of this fight and into a battle with the VR46 duo.
He ultimately took the chequered flag in sixth for his best sprint result of the season and was just over two seconds from the top four.
Despite his strong result, Quartararo doesn’t believe Yamaha’s pace is brilliant - but enough to allow him to fight.
“Yeah, really happy,” he told the official MotoGP website.
“We managed a really great race. I think that the start was really important.
“Hopefully we can make a similar one tomorrow, but I enjoyed the race.
“I mean, this race we have pace - not a really good one.
“But in Argentina we had a really bad pace, we couldn’t make a lot of laps in a great pace.
“Here it’s a bit better, so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to be fast and try to see how the tyre management will be.”
Though held back by the Yamaha’s lack of power and traction compared to the Ducati, Quartararo was happy to be fighting “with the people at the front”, though is wary of repeating this in Sunday’s 20-lap grand prix.
“Of course I enjoyed it a lot, especially because it’s a long time I didn’t really fight with the people in the front,” he added.
“It was also nice to finish less than two seconds from P4. This is one thing.
“So, hopefully tomorrow we will have the possibility… I know with more laps we will struggle a little bit more, but it will be really important to make a good start and make a good fight.”
