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Ninth at the finish line in the Montmelo GP, Fabio Quartararo finally looks at his glass half full. Being able to enjoy extra track time at Mugello certainly helped the Yamaha team recuperate a bit. And, although compared to other times he's still struggling, there's still some good news, and the fight for the top ten places no longer seems as impossible as before.
But not everything went smoothly today. Even if the French rider brought home a decent placing, his teammate struggled, grappling with a few technical hiccups that caught him off guard and forced him to the back of the grid, despite the fact that his sensations weren't bad in the beginning.
"Considering our current level, having finished within five seconds of the top five is positive. The sensations were better than expected. We know what we're lacking in, and we're working on it. Overall, we confirmed what we did in Le Mans, where the pace had already been good. Hopefully, we can progress further. Thanks to the upgrades, we're able to enter corners faster and deal with them better. The aerodynamics don't entail a sudden change, but I have to say that, in the test, we reverted to the 2022, and it was a disaster. I think the current ones will allow us to make progress. The important thing is to do a lot of kilometers, because that's the only way to get an idea of what works. These are the benefits of concessions. So, after the private session in Tuscany, we can take advantage of another two days in Valencia. Even though it's a lot of work, I think it's worth it. Having the opportunity to ride alone on the track is crucial in understanding the quality of the upgrades. Yamaha has never took this approach but, finally, the innovations aren't presented just because, but with a purpose, focusing on our weak points. These are small improvements and, of course, you always want more. But, honestly, we've been stuck for a year and a half, and now we're seeing the light."
Getting back to the race and the two positions that were recuperated in the closing stages, he said: "I saw that Bezzecchi and Oliveira were battling it out. I knew that turn one was going to be complex, therefore, I braked very early so that I'd then have more speed, and I overtook them. Being able to hold the position until the chequered flag was also good. I was smart. Who's the favorite for the title? I don't care, but Bagnaia manages to recover well even when he falls, and I think he's the strongest."
As expected Alex Rins' performance at the tail end of the group was decidedly less positive. "It was a complicated race from the beginning. At the start, I recuperated a few positions but, at the first hard braking, I was sucked in by who I had in front, namely, Martin. To avoid hitting him, I took the long trajectory and ended up last. At that point, I just tried not to overheat the tires, overtaking someone so that I'd have some margin in the final stages, going at my pace. But, when there were twelve, thirteen laps to go, I started having fuel injection problems, especially at turns four, nine, and twelve. Even if I pushed on the throttle, the engine revs didn't go up, probably because of the fuel injection but, above all, the rear tire started to slide. It was really tough, but we at least we collected information for the future, and specifically for low-grip tracks. On the bright side, we'll be back on the bike at Mugello five days from now. We tried various strategies in terms of electronics, since we suffered a lot from the low grip. We tried to intervene during the warm-up, but it didn't pay off."
