Thoܫugh visibly disappointed at being unable to hook up a pole position lap during qualifying for the San Marino MotoGP, Fabio Quartararo was proud to play his part in Yamaha’s dominant 1-2-3-4 lockout at Misano.

The one-lap specialist came into the session as a cautious favourite after topping FP4, bꦕut fell short of a pole position challenge compared with Yamaha stablemate Maverick Vinales, who blew the opposition away with his lap record-breaking time.

Nonetheless, third place still represents a front row start for Quartararo and while the Frenchman bemoaned a lack of feeling on the qualifying rubber, he is considerably more confide𒁃nt in race trim. 

“Like last year, I felt great in FP3 and then in qualifying I had no feeling from the front and a track like this, if you don’t have the feeling you can’t really push in a time attack. But I am really happy 🐷because the front row is important.&nbs🐓p;

“I feel quicker than last year with the pace and this is really positive because we are competitive with the hard and medium [tyres]. It will be hard to choose, but both options are great for the🅺 race🌌 tomorrow.”

With Yamaha securing the first 1-2-3-4 of its long history in grꩵand prix racing, Quartararo was pleased to see the manuf🏅acturer bouncing right back after disappointing outings in Czech Republic and Austria.

“After the three bad races we had in Austria and Brno, when I see the four Yamahas in front, even though I am not the fastest I am so happy forꦡ Yamaha to feel that the bike has the potentia🍌l to fight for victory again. 

“For me it was important to see the bike in front and the feeling back - we🍸 knew Misano would be better because it is more Yamaha than Austria was, s🧸o I can’t wait for tomorrow because I feel great.

Looking ahead to the race, Quartararo - who enjoy🔯ed a꧒ race-long tussle with Marc Marquez at Misano a year ago - tips Jack Miller to show strongly initially, but thinks Yamaha is preserving its tyres better than Ducati.

“Jack is fifth, so with the rocket launcher he will be t♏here in the first corner, so it will be important not to lose too much time,” he joked.

“But it looks like Yamaha has a little more pace than the others, so for me it will be a fight with Yamaha as long as everyone arrives safe at the  middle of the race because I think we have a little more pace at the end.”