Fabio Quartararo, the new and immense French hope in MotoGP
Moto3 champion in Spain, Fabio Quartararo had to bend his opponents by arriving in the Grand Prix … Finally, "El Diablo" had to keep a low profile and work very hard to reach the premier class. This Sunday in Jerez, the talented French rider was rewarded: he masters MotoGP !
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Petronas SRT (1st in qualifying and 1st in race): “It sounds amazing. I don’t think I realized what just happened yet, I believe it will come by watching the race. It’s a shame my family, friends and fans are not there to attend, but it feels so good to finally be on the top step of the podium ".
“It was an amazing race, we were so consistent despite the really bad track. There was very little grip and the tires wore out so quickly. I felt great on the bike so thank you to my team, to my partners and to Yamaha ".
"I lived one of the scariest moments of the race in the same place where I had the problem last year (a stupid but disastrous selector problem, Editor’s note), I was afraid that it would happen. Everything was going well, but the last ten laps seemed so long to complete. With each completed lap, I felt better and better, I had a little fun ".
"This victory is for my family, my brother in particular, my best friend, my manager, all the fans who cannot be there, my team and also for these people who have suffered a lot over the past four months (from the coronavirus, Editor’s note ). I also wish Alex [Rins], Cal [Crutchlow] and Marc [Marquez] a speedy recovery. ".
MNC analysis: From the start, this first Grand Prix of the year was not won for Fabio. However, the Journal moto du Net does not only refer to his start to the race on Sunday! As a reminder, the No. 20 of the Yamaha SRT team was confined a little longer than his comrades….
For having trained for two days at the Paul Ricard circuit on a prepared R1 – a little too likely – the poleman of the 2019 Spanish GP was not allowed to take his M1 out of the pits during the first 20 minutes of the race. Friday morning free session (FP1).
Despite this precious time wasted, the young man gradually climbed back up through the timesheets. On Saturday afternoon, his name even appeared at the top of Q2: Fabio took his seventh pole position in the premier class, a record for a French driver !
The youngest Moto3 champion of Spain (in 2013 … and crowned again in 2014 because not old enough to join the GP) also seems to take pleasure in dominating at home his Hispanic opponents: last year already in qualifying he had turned faster than Marquez, Vinales, Rins (etc.) in Jerez, Barcelona and Valencia.
Unfortunately, in the race, the immense hope of French motorcycle speed had not yet won out. Twice last year, however, in Misano (Italy) and Buriram (Thailand), Fabio seemed able to unlock his victory counter. But the champion Marc Marquez had deprived him of this satisfaction, a few laps from the finish !
It is hard to imagine the tension under the helmet of our sympathetic "Diablo" just before the lights went out at 2pm last Sunday … To make matters worse, Marquez and Vinales appear in front of him at the first braking and a few turns later, Miller then Bagnaia take him away from the head of the race. We fear then that the "glory day" is still postponed…
Fortunately, it takes more to destabilize the "best rookie of 2019" and Marquez’s main rival late last season. "Our" Yamaha rider applies himself and surpasses his competitors … while the n ° 93 Honda gets overexcited and exceeds the limits of its Michelin !
Victory of a French over private Yamaha and Michelin
"Quartararo was in great shape all weekend, beating the lap record on Saturday morning before improving it again in qualifying with a 1,36,705 synonymous with pole position", notes the French manufacturer in its report on Spanish GP 2020. A "super form" which succeeded in destabilizing Marc Marquez … and especially his RCV !
"This lap was completed with a hard slick before and a soft rear, an association chosen by most of the drivers for the long race of 25 laps (only Vinales and Rossi opted for a soft at the front, Editor’s note), of which Quartararo himself, who was able to demonstrate that his ultra-fast tires on one lap also demonstrated consistency and performance throughout this very intense race, welcomes the Michelin passage..
The Bidendum also underlines that Fabio Quartararo "was barely born when his compatriot Regis Laconi won his first Grand Prix in the premier class, in Valencia in 1999, on a Yamaha fitted with Michelin tires". A Yamaha satellite, like Fabio! The last victory of a "private" machine marked with three tuning forks dates back to 2000: Garry McCoy had won on the Valencia turnstile too.
Yamaha team director Petronas SRT are therefore incredibly satisfied: "we finished better team today and Franky (Morbidelli, fifth, NLDR) helped us", says Johan Stigefelt, proud of his "second" rider who "s’ is beaten very hard in racing against motorcycles much faster than his ".
The success of this very young team set up in 2014 by Razlan Razali (director of the Sepang circuit in Malaysia) evokes the brilliant partnership between Yamaha and Tech3. Crowned in 2000 with Olivier Jacque in GP250, Herve Poncharal’s team almost won races in the premier category, mainly with Johann Zarco !
During their 2017 and 2018 seasons, the Var team and its n ° 5 signed four pole positions and reached six podiums (four 2nd places and two 3rd places). Zarco won the "titles" of best rookie and best independent rider in MotoGP, but never finished first in a race…
During the post-race press conference, Johann warmly congratulated his compatriot and opponent. The double Moto2 world champion thus tried to compensate for the ghostly atmosphere of this Grand Prix held behind closed doors..
"Marquez will be the 2020 champion, for a change!"
The press conference on Thursday also caught Site’s attention. With his little comrades around him – but not too much either, eh! -, our French "good 20" was invited to predict the final Top 5 of this MotoGP 2020 season. However, he did not predict world champion ?!
Like the good – but old – Valentino Rossi whom he will replace in the Yamaha factory team in 2021, Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro, Fabio Quartararo imagines that "for a change, Marc" will be sacred in the end of this short and intense year.
"For my second year, I’m second, then Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller and Alex Rins," bet the fifth driver of the 2019 championship with a big smile. Is the Fabio confusing with humility, touching with naivety, disappointing with timidity … or fabulous with falsehood? Bets are also open on this !
Perhaps it is sheer superstition that one of the very best riders on the MotoGP grid has preferred to put the name of the six-time MotoGP champion at the top of his list. Or to bring bad luck to the "Numero Uno" of the discipline which never separates from its lucky number "eighty … thirteen" ?
"The most important thing will be to tackle the races one after the other and to finish them", declared Fabio at the start before the first GP of the year. "It will be necessary to be careful, avoid clashes, falls, while carefully following the hygiene protocols, because the slightest injury could cause a lot of heats to miss".
By trying at all costs to get back on the podium after his miraculous rescue in turn n ° 4 and his laborious passage in the gravel pit, even to pick up the leader Quartararo, Marquez confused speed, great personal pleasure and great spectacle for the fans (!) with haste, intense pain and zero points for the championship.
"I feel ready for tomorrow," said Fabio at the end of qualifying. The outsider readily recognized that "Marc has a slightly better pace compared to ours (for the race, editor’s note), but we intend to fight until the end". In the end, it was Marc who was led to the end.
If we can regret that the long-awaited duel "fairing against fairing" between Marquez and Quartararo did not take place this Sunday, we can rejoice in the first victory of the French over the Spanish, which calls for others. . How would Fabio have defended himself against Marc if the latter had not fallen ?
Bring down the champion … from his throne
Site leaves to those who wish it the care of elaborating a tedious study of the times. Do not forget to do this that Fabio was managing alone in the lead, that Marquez was struggling in the traffic, that his RCV had swallowed a lot of gravel after his long slide … Good puzzle !
For Le Journal moto du Net in fact, the question simply does not arise: "the best defense is the attack", said the famous Anonymous. We must therefore rejoice in the fall – and the spectacular rescue – of Marquez, and even his second fall: they are proof that the champion was pushed to his limits by Vinales and Quartararo !
On the other hand, we cannot congratulate ourselves on the painful consequences of the champion’s high-side and his foreseeable absence on the track next weekend, or even in August. The championship is sufficiently upset by the Covid-19, the 2020 title should not lose its value, whatever the sacred driver in the end.
Always extremely "fair play", Fabio has also sent all his encouragement to the three injured of this GP of Spain: Alex Rins, Cal Crutchlow and Marc Marquez which we do not know, to this day, when and where we will see them. return to the "Continental and confined Circus"…
As lovers of good "20 français", let’s savor this excellent first cuvee from Jerez: the "Double-Vingt" season has started perfectly for our Quartararo. But the "little sister" will be served to us at the end of this week, on the same circuit and under the same conditions. Same result then? Race to follow on MNC: stay connected and #RestezPrudents !
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