Fabio Quartararo | Photo credits: MotoGP
The PETRONAS Yamaha SRT riders came into Barcelona with aims of a stellar comeback and indeed, the efforts proved fruitful as Fabio Quartararo bounced back in style marching his way to the front to clock his victory ahead of Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Joan Mir. Teammate Franco Morbidelli was shy of a podium win, trailing behind third place’s Alex Rins of Team Suzuki Ectsar.
The Nice native graced the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya in a bid to improve his performance after a near-miss in the Emilia Romagna GP. He battled Monster Energy Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi initially to secure his lead and held a strong ground ever since. Lap 8 saw great strides from Quartararo and Morbidelli trying to gain some advantage. Quoting MotoGP, with 14 to go, there was just 0.8 covering the leading three, but Morbidelli was then nearly down at Turn 1 a lap later.
El Diablo’s lead was 2.8 with four to go and at the end of Lap 21, the gap was down to just 2.5 – Mir seven-tenths quicker than the race leader, and the lead Suzuki man now right on Morbidelli. Quartararo’s lead was 1.8, but Mir was flying. Halfway around the last lap, the Majorcan was just 1.4 off, and the tenths kept evaporating from Quartararo’s advantage. Round the final corner though, the Frenchman stood firm. Quartararo retrieves the Championship lead, and made it back on the top step for the first time since Jerez.
With a sterling finish for Quartararo, the MotoGP paddock now shifts to France. The Frenchman will be taking on Le Mans with high hopes to deliver consistent performance. The French GP will be taking place in the legendary Bugatti Circuit, or better known as the Circuit de la Sarthe, with the lights going out on October 11.
“Honestly it was a difficult race. I made a great start then I was fourth. Jack made a mistake and I knew that was the perfect time to overtake! When I took the lead, and Franco stayed some laps behind, our pace was really fast and I think at that moment it was way too fast to keep the tyre fresh to the end. In the end, I was three seconds slower but it’s not because I was in control!”
“I was pushing at my maximum. And unfortunately, it’s difficult to understand because the two guys here were much faster than me at the end but I think it was so important to make the first half of the race in the best conditions. We can be happy with our job today after five races of tough times. We learned many things but today it’s good to be back on the podium!”