Fabio Quartararo finished the Sprint race of the MotoGP Austrian GP in 12th place. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider was in the top ten at one point, but he lost momentum and only moved up to his final position with a last-lap pass on Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing/Aprilia).
The 2021 World Champion described a race with a high level of difficulty, where he had few options to compete with his rivals: ‘It was tough, because in the morning checking the pace was not so bad. I think it’s always the same; riding alone we know that our strong point is the braking, so if we brake with nobody in front, we brake super hard in turn 1, turn 2, turn 3, turn 4, turn 9. But when we have riders in front, it’s complicated. And like always in the Sprint, the first three laps everybody is pushing like a time attack to make the gap to the rider in the back. We have not this extra grip, I defended a lot the position and I made mistakes. At the end, in the first lap I was good, I think I was P9 or P10. But it was difficult to maintain, and then of course the front tyre got hot, and then we cannot stop because we only stop with the front and in the rear we don’t have grip. So, many circumstances that made the Sprint pretty tough’.
When asked where he was being overtaken, Quartararo explained the difficulties he’s facing: ‘In this race I don’t know why, but we were very slow. I think that they were exiting from the corners 3km/h or 4km/h faster and then automatically they bring the speed to the next braking and they can overtake. And even when I hear a bike and it’s close I try maybe to make too much and make a mistake. It’s not purely on the straight, but they can prepare better the overtake, we cannot prepare’.
And «El Diablo» mentioned an example: ‘I was behind Miguel in the last lap, he made a mistake in the chicane 2A/2B, I exited a way faster, but then with the engine they go away. We struggled more than expected also here. In terms of pure pace alone it was okay, but with riders we are struggling’.
The situation won’t improve for the main race, as Quartararo admitted: ‘It’s going to be the same. While we don’t get the rear grip that we need – and not only by mechanical grip, but also by how we do it with traction and electronics – we will never make a step forward in this aspect of the rear grip and in terms of result especially in the Sprint and in time attack’.