Fabio Quartararo achieved one of his best results of the MotoGP season at the Emilia Romagna GP, finishing seventh – which could have been a top-five result if he hadn’t run out of fuel near the end.
The Monster Energy Yamaha rider was pleased with the performance, which he considers his best so far: ‘I think it was a really great race, by far the best of the year. We have made some great pace, I didn’t expect to be that fast during the whole race. Unfortunately, at the second to last corner, we had no fuel. But I think we can be happy. We always saw the front guys quite close to us, so I think we made a step’.
Despite missing out on an even better result, Quartararo believes the performance itself was the most important aspect: ‘Well, you know, if it was one corner before, we would have pitted to the box, so I think for what it is worth, it’s not the position but the race we made. In the end, to finish P5 or P7 is not something that really matters for us; what really matters is that we made some steps, and I think it’s quite interesting for the future’.
What has changed for Yamaha to seemingly make good progress at this stage? The 2021 champion replied: ‘It’s the mentality; the mentality has changed quite a lot, we have been working since February in a way but haven’t really found a direction. And it seems that in the Misano test before Misano 1 we found something which can be great. The direction is quite straightforward, let’s say. We know what we have to improve, then how, we don’t really know. And, of course, for us, power is something that we miss, for one lap, it’s important, but especially for the race, I think that it’s even more important to fight’.
Now in a positive phase, Quartararo heads into the Indonesian GP, where he finished on the podium in 2023, but he tempered expectations: ‘I think the first step is to see how is our bike here, because we have been nearly one month in Misano. The potential was great, but I think it’s quite important to see what our potential is at this track. Especially we’ll see in the FP1, the track will be quite dirty, and I think if we qualify in the top 10 in the Practice, I think we have a great potential to make a great race on Sunday’.