Fabio Quartararo achieved his second victory of the year at the Catalunya GP, increasing his margin at the head of the world championship, showing great power that was helped, in part, by the great mistake of Aleix Espargaró with one lap to go before the conclusion of the race. Test.
“I made a great start, not the best”, introduced the Frenchman after finishing the race. “You know that when someone brakes in the first corner you have a little bit of margin. But I pushed a lot.”
“I always say it, that in the end, to win, we have to do everything perfectly and that I am really happy. We have achieved this victory in a really good way, in the first corner I have managed to brake really hard. It has really been something well, and to laugh after the race I took a photo with my overalls open”, he explained, referring to the incident he suffered last year.
The French rider also wanted to dedicate a few words to the strange incident of his main rival for the world championship: “It’s a shame for him but a little better for us, we have to be honest. But we know that Aleix was the boy to fight for throughout the championship “.
Regularity has been the strong point of the French rider during the ninth race of the year, in which he set a pace unattainable for the rest of the group.
“I didn’t expect to be so consistent in the race or so fast. At the pace level we were fine but we weren’t too fast. The start was very important, my strategy was to go out in front for at least five laps. yes hard. Turns 3 and 5 create a lot of tire destruction and it was very important to be consistent.”
The Yamaha rider achieved a six-second lead over his closest rivals, which he was able to maintain until the end.
“When you’re leading the race like that, it gets super long. And you start thinking about things that maybe you shouldn’t. I was hoping for a little bit more of a fight, but hey, it felt good.”
“When I saw that I had a gap of half a second, I noticed very well. I saw that they were not going to overtake me on the straight, so I was very happy.”
Fabio Quartararo has achieved his 10th victory in the category, in a race where his main rivals have had problems and on a track where he did not expect to go so well.
“We knew that these were circuits that were going to be difficult. Especially on the straight. But we knew that if we got a good base for the corners we could go very fast. In many races we will depend on our first lap, but being first on the first curve was very important.
Driver safety was one of the hot topics, especially after the first corner incident that saw three drivers hit the ground, and Quartararo wanted to offer his point of view.
“For me, the decision to sanction a driver must be taken faster, before anything happens. For example, when it’s raining, you don’t have to wait to see if it stops raining or not. I believe that prevention always is better”.
“I don’t think it was a race event. I don’t understand how he could touch Pecco’s wheel with his head [Bagnaia]. I can’t explain it. I think that the first laps we all have to be aware that we are with 160 motorcycles kilos and if you get hit, you can die”, he commented when asked about the accident in the first corner of the race, in which Alex Rins, Pecco Bagnaia and Takaaki Nakagami were involved.
“So those are the most dangerous places for us, at the start, when everything is going to come together after the first lap.”
Finally, the French driver also wanted to talk about his long-term plans, keeping an eye on the world title that will be decided at the end of the season.
“I think this is the way to win the year. Getting first and second places. But it’s not easy. Because I have very complicated rivals. Here I expected the top speed to be worse, but with the slope going down it wasn’t so bad “.
“The best thing this afternoon, [has been] winning consistency and regularity, but I’m having difficulties. It’s hard for me, because I always feel on the limit. But I have very good feelings on the bike and it’s a similar situation to last year, riding to the maximum potential. Every time I get on the bike I take little steps forward”.
