Fabio Quartararo finished the Thai Grand Prix in last place, 16th, and much of that was due to a crash he suffered after being involved with Franco Morbidelli. However, the Frenchman was one of the most competitive in Buriram up to that point, and a very positive final position could have been a reality, he believes.
The Yamaha rider believes he could have had one of the best races of the year at the Chang circuit, had it not been for Morbidelli’s ‘suicidal attack’, stating: ‘I was always watching on TV where [Pecco] Bagnaia was and I know he was gaining distance from us, but he wasn’t gaining a monumental distance’.
Without aiming for the top three, he could still have finished very well, he believes: ‘I don’t want to say the podium but… I’m going to say something and maybe I’m totally wrong but I think I could have finished between third and seventh place was something realistic, but I was just checking on TV, so it’s hard to say’.
The wet track somehow “hid” a good part of the M1’s problems, as Quartararo mentioned:
– Especially at the end because for us the front was critical, I used it a lot, and the straight-line braking was locking up. In dry conditions our bike depends a lot on the track conditions: if the track has grip we go much better than when there is no grip, and for me the conditions were quite ok, but at the end there was a strong dry line and we know that going from the dry is very critical.