His sixth place in the Sprint Race had given him false hopes, but Sunday brought Fabio Quartararo back down to earth, leaving him to bid farewell to the Goiânia circuit with a meager 16th-place finish. This didn’t particularly upset the Yamaha rider, who is well aware of the shortcomings of his M1 V4, which still resembles a test bike.
“The start wasn’t as good as yesterday’s, and with the longer gears we struggle more in terms of power, but the biggest problem was with the rear tyre,” the Frenchman admitted immediately after the race. Like his teammates, he had to accept the reduction in the number of laps to be completed just moments before the start.
“We found out just five minutes before the start. It was a borderline decision, made at the last minute, but it was clear to me that I would put on the soft tyre. Perhaps others, knowing that the race had been shortened from 31 to 23 laps, would have opted for the soft tyre as well. I’d say informing us 10 minutes beforehand would have been the right timing,” he said, later denying that he had encountered any issues with the track surface during the race.
“Before the GP, I felt that something wasn’t quite right, but nothing specific. As far as I’m concerned, everything went well,” he said, followed by an overall assessment of the first MotoGP weekend in Brazil.
“It was a positive weekend. Let’s hope that next year we won’t have any more issues with the track surface and that the schedule can be followed in a more professional manner. That said, I enjoyed the event, as well as the venue and the track, which I find fun,” he said.
Finally, looking ahead to next weekend’s Texas round, the Frenchman admitted: “I expected worse from this event, so I don’t know what will happen at COTA.”