Where did Quartararo manage to gain time on Marquez for pole?

He was aiming for the front row in qualifying and the top 5 in the race. At least that's what fabio quartararo stated before the start of Saturday's qualifying, resulting in another brilliant pole position for him. On Thursday already, the French driver wanted to be patient, and refused to aim too high after an exploit in Jerez which at first glance looked like an epic phenomenon.

However, his bike proved to be fast, allowing him to overtake Marc Marquez despite several sectors in which he was dominated on the clock. Although Ducati's dominance is still very much a reality, especially in racing, it seems that one sector in particular could be exploited by El Diablo this Le Mans weekend.

Quartararo takes advantage of sector 3

On the four sections of the Bugatti circuit, the two leading drivers each dominated two partial stages, making their gap even smaller. Leading after the first two sections, Marc Marquez was actually driving 95 thousandths of a second faster than Fabio Quartararo in S1. In sector 2, the Spaniard was only 11 thousandths ahead of the Frenchman.

In contrast, in sectors 3 and 4, it was the Yamaha that took the lead. Thanks to a lead of 0.128 seconds in the third section, and a further difference made in the last section to the tune of 96 thousandths of a second, Fabio Quartararo increased his lead by more than two tenths in the second half of the track, where Marc Marquez only took a tenth of a second early in the race.

It's worth noting that sector 3 is a section of the circuit that's mostly made up of left-hand turns, where the Ducati rider is expected to take the lead. The home rider's lead reflects a significant rapprochement in the race. Join us at 15 p.m. this Saturday for the first sprint race.

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