An early c👍rash derailed what could have been a first MotoGP podium of the season for Fabio Quartararo at🎀 the Thai Grand Prix.

Such was Quartararo’s pace after he crashed, he felt that a result comfortably inside the top-10, or even on the podium, could have been possible without th🎃e contact from Fran🧔co Morbidelli on lap four.

“It’s difficult, because I was always looking o𝐆n the TV [during the race🏅] where [Francesco] Bagnaia was,” Quartararo explained after the race.

“I know he was opening the gap to us, but he was not opening𝕴 the gap a crazy amount. I think that between third and seventh was something realistic, [but] I was just checki༺ng by the TV, so it’s difficult to say exactly.”

Yamaha struggled in the dry in Thailand to generate temperature in the♐ rear tyre, and those issues persisted in the wet conditions of Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“We struggled from the morning to𒀰 warm-up the𝓰 rear tyre, especially on the left, and the electronics were pretty tough to understand,” Quartararo said.

“It was cutting a lot, and in a straight 🐈line the bike was not pushing; some corners were good, some corners not, and this is what I don’t understand with the bike.”

Quartararo found positivity in his pace after his cras🎀h, though, which was fairly comparable with race winner Francesco Bagnaia — both able to lap consistently in the mi♔d-to-high-1:40s, and Quartararo able to do so despite some significant crash damage.

“I think after the crash — even if I was without a wing, the steering was bent, no rear brake, the [right] footpeg was cut ꦗin half — I think the pace was good, even afterℱ that. I think that’s quite positive.”

Quartararo also felt he and his Yamaha team had been able to improve the perf🍨ormance of his YZR-M1 from the morning to the afternoon, particularly regarding his feeling with the front tyre, even if he felt there was still margin to improve.

“So, especially🌺 here I’m struggling wi🔯th the front because, mainly, we are quite strong in the wet in straight braking,” he said.

“Here, I was struggling in the morning, this afternoon was better. Still [a lot of] locking on the front, but I think that from the morning to this afterno🎀on was an improvement; this is why, even if the bike was quite broken [after the crash], I🗹 wanted to follow, to make more laps, and to feel if the electronics were better or not.”

The front locking issue got progressively worse for Quartararo as the ra✱ce went on.

“Especially at💛 the end, because for us the front was really critical, I lose a lot, and on the straight ꦡbraking was really locking,” Quartararo said.

“But, the grip for us, like I’ve said in the dry, the bike depends way too much on the track [grip], because when the track is grippy we go much better than when there is no 🎉grip.”