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MotoGP, Quartararo: “Jack was a bit faster than me in the end, but I wasn't angry about it”

“When I saw his time I thought: ‘man, he did better’. If I found two tenths I could fight for the victory”. Vinales: "We are struggling at top speed, and I have to improve my start"

MotoGP: Quartararo: “Jack was a bit faster than me in the end, but I wasn't angry about it”

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Fabio Quartararo was enjoying the best time of the day in Losail, but too bad Jack Miller put a spoke in the wheel, relegating him to second place, ahead of Maverick Vinales. The Frenchman saw the funny side however: "Jack was a bit faster than me in the end - he began - I wasn't angry when I saw his time on the tower, I just sort of laughed: "man, he did better ". But we know that Jack and Ducati are strong here in Losail and for sure they can aim for victory ”.

As for Fabio's day, he had this to say:

“It was a strange day initially, because I stayed in the garage for a long time. Then I managed to do one of my best laps ever, but it wasn't enough, because Miller did better. However, I am excited, because we are heading in the right direction and the new frame is giving me good feelings. Obviously having one or two tenths more on the race pace would be fantastic to fight for the victory. But we are not far away, because we are working and I have found several improvements, in particular in riding”.

Obviously there are some aspects to work on…

“I still don't feel good under braking and in comparison with the Ducati we run the risk of suffering a bit there, so we need to improve. It’s not easy because we can’t just put 20 more horsepower into the engine, since the Ducatis are very fast on the straight. Obviously we can't change the engine, but we certainly have time to work and take a step forward in terms of performance ”.

Fabio is focussing on himself, but the threat of Miller looms large…

“Jack is strong and fast and I am convinced that he will be a difficult opponent for everyone. But in this Championship there are a lot of strong riders who can aspire to win ”.

The word then passed to Maverick Vinales, third today ahead of Zarco on the Ducati...

“All in all it was a positive Wednesday - commented the Spaniard - shame about the crash in turn 1, I had a medium tyre, the temperature dropped and I ended up on the ground. Apart from that, I am happy, because we are going in the right direction and the sensations are positive ”.

For Maverick however there is still a lot of work to do…

“For sure we need to take a step forward with our starts, as we have suffered in the past. The sensations are still good, especially given the times, since I feel good on the bike and Yamaha is also working carefully. At the end of the day I also made some fast laps and that’s important for the rest of the tests ”.

One final comment was about top speed…

“We know we are losing something in terms of top speed, this is precisely for this reason that we need to continue our development work. But at the same time you have to be in the top positions when the race starts, trying to push hard. This is our goal ”. 

 

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