Fifth, Fabio Quartararo “had fun” during the Sprint in Qatar

Qualifying on the front row, the 2021 world champion had expressed doubts about his bike's performance at race pace. However, from the first laps, Quarterly showed he was capable of competing with the best. He spent the eleven laps of the race battling with Franco Morbidelli's Ducati, gradually closing in on his rival. Despite his efforts on the final lap, Quartararo was unable to find an opening against the power of the Ducati on the straight. In the final corner, Fermín Aldeguer slipped past with his Ducati Gresini to snatch fourth place from the French rider.

"It feels good" for Quartararo

“It feels really good, especially the qualifying rounds. Being on the front row, with no one in front… it’s a change!”, Quartararo told Canal+. "The race was pretty good, we ended up with a pretty good pace. It's just very difficult to prepare for an overtake on the Ducatis, but I think I got a good start, had a good first lap and then had a good race."

The Nice player spoke at greater length about the three-way battle from the official MotoGP website : "The podium was clearly my goal! I saw that Fermín was coming back super strong, Di Giannantonio too, I gave everything to be as fast as possible. I did my best, I lost the front three times on the last lap. That was my goal, but unfortunately I couldn't achieve it."

A “little something” to look for on the Yamaha

While Quartararo may have reassured himself in terms of pure lap times, he knows he only did half the job this Saturday. This Sunday's race will be twice as long, and in the same conditions. Given the drop in performance of the riders who started on the soft rear tire, the likelihood of the same thing happening to the medium at the end of the Grand Prix is ​​significant. For the French rider, his Yamaha is lacking a little bit of control today on this tire, which is under heavy use.

"It was nice to have this pace, but there was something missing, which would allow us to put less strain on the tires. Here, in the Sprint, we did half the race in a certain way, the other half will be more complicated on Sunday. I think it's a bit the same for everyone, the Ducatis still seem to manage the tires better than us. I enjoyed myself, and I think there's a way to enjoy it again during the Grand Prix."

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