Fabio Quartararo at Spanish MotoGP: “What went wrong? Everything. Every year we lose strong points”
He won consecutive grands prix ꦬat Jerez in back-to-back weekends in 2020, and fought at the 🅰front in 2021 and 2022 too.
But he was merely 16th-fastest in Friday practice. Quartararo was eighth tenths behind Aleix Espargaro, who was fa♚stest, and was left bemoaning his chances.
The 2021 MotoGP champion sa🌳id: “Difficult to say what was wrong. But, I mean, everything꧙!
“Every time I was going into a corner, I didn’t knoꦚw if I was going to finish it.
“In the last lap I was improving, but feeling on the limit. But the last lap I did okay. Whatever happened, happened. And at Turn 7 I🦋 lost the front𒐪 and went wide.
“The problem is that we don’t kno🌞w why we are that slow. And, the bike is super aggressive, we are missing turning. So it’s difficult.
“To be honest, every year we are losing our strong pointsও from the past.
“I’d say the turning and corner speed we had four yea෴rs ago was better, more stability. That’s what we lose.
“And actually here the top speᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚed is not so bad because you come from a fast corner so you don’t have so much wheelie and it helps.
“But it’s not only that, the problem is many, many other things and this is one o🦄f them. The corner speed we are carrying is not good and the bike is super aggressive.
“Not because we are going so fast and it🍷 is aggressive but we are not going so fast and we are shaking a lot.
“In the morning I think we were a little bit better. But let’s say we will have to figure it out [overnight] why we are struggling that m🍨uch, where we lose because we still didn’t have time🧔 to really check right now.
“So [Friday night] we’re going to check exactly where we lose and hopefully we will find a solution.&nb꧂spꦦ;
“And even my riding style, for sure. I can modify m🍒any things at least to try to be bett♚er.
“It is bad to say this, but even on the꧑ pace we are not good.
“If the 🅠pace was good and time attack was bad, you can still manage꧋.
“The pace is bad because with a new tyre I was sl🦩ow𒁃er than many guys. So at the moment today it is impossible to make the kind of race like last year.”
James was a sports journalist𒊎 at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sport🐻s, to football, to F1.
