Fabio Quartararo takes fight to Ducati in Qatar: “I have to throw everything at it”

Fabio Quartararo came close to following up a first MotoGP front-row qualifying since 2022 with a Sprint podium on Saturday in Qatar.

Quartararo’s scorching qualifying lap briefly put the Monster Yamaha rider on pole position, until Marc and Alex Marquez responded.

Nonetheless, he was the only non-Ducati in the top five and slashed 1.2s from his 16th place qualifying lap at last year’s event.

"It was really nice!” Quartararo said.

“I knew in qualifying that I was going to set a good lap time, but I didn't know it was going to be that good. I made zero mistakes on the fast lap, and I felt fast.

“Our bike suits this track quite well, and we need to take the benefit from this. I have to throw everything at it.”

The 2021 world champion continued that approach in the Sprint, going toe-to-toe with former team-mate Franco Morbidelli for third place.

“During the Sprint, I tried my best,” Quartararo said. “It’s super complicated to prepare and overtake when already in the drive area they pull away.

“I'm braking super late but the problem is I cannot keep the acceleration with [Morbidelli] to prepare and overtake.”

Another Ducati then joined the fight in the form of rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who snatched fourth from Quartararo when the Frenchman saved a front-end slide at the very last corner.

“Unfortunately, on the last lap I lost the front three times because I really wanted to fight for the podium. In the last corner, I completely lost the front, and Fermin overtook me,” Quartararo said.

“But I think we can be really happy about the day we had today. During this Sprint I learned a lot. There are some areas where I can push tomorrow, and in other areas I need to save the tyres to keep them in good shape.

“We did a good job today, so let's analyse the data well, and, hopefully, tomorrow we can manage to have a great pace and a great start again."

Quartararo completed the Sprint 12-seconds faster than on his way to a twelfth place finish a year ago.

Team-mate Alex Rins fought back from a bad start to finish in twelfth place after being among those to gamble on the soft rear tyre.

"I lost a lot at the start. We have to check why,” he said. “Apart from that, today was a good day. We went directly from Q1 to Q2. In Q2, I was able to do a good lap whilst riding alone, so I was quite satisfied about this.

“But in the Sprint, I couldn't do so much after the problem at the start. I got stuck behind Bezzecchi, Martin, and Binder.

“I was riding on the soft tyre, and this was the right choice for me, but it did mean I was riding a bit on the limit in the last few laps. It's clear that for tomorrow we will be choosing the medium."