The fast lap punishment that Fabio Quartararo had to face during the Silverstone race and that he dragged from Assen, due to the collision he had there with Aleix Espargaró, was the star issue of the British Grand Prix weekend, but finally the French He made the very cheap long lap of turn 14 in less than a second, losing three positions and going from second place that he occupied in the first three laps, to fifth.
But far from going forward and coming back, the Frenchman was losing consistency as the laps passed and in the end he finished eighth, saving a position in the last meters, when Aleix almost passed him losing the line in the attempt.
Before the race, Massimo Meregalli , Yamaha’s sports director, assured on the grid that Fabio’s choice of soft front and medium rear tire was the right one, but it was not.
“The rear tire hurt us a lot, I thought the medium compound was going to be good for us, but when I was behind four riders the rear tire got really hot. We didn’t have a good pace and it wasn’t a good race for us” , pointed the Gaul.
The problem is that Fabio had used the rear soft rubber throughout the weekend, but as the temperature rose (22 degrees in the ambient and 44 on the asphalt) compared to Friday and Saturday, he opted to mount the medium compound, which he had not tried. throughout the weekend.
“I always use the front soft and today it has also given us a good performance, the rear medium is also a choice that we use a lot, almost always, the problem is that we made the mistake of not testing it before the race during the weekend, so our mistake”, lamented the leader of the World Cup, who with 180 points leads Aleix (158) by 22, although now Pecco Bagnaia (131) is third at 49 and rising.
The only positive thing about the race for Quartararo is that he finished ahead of the Aprilia rider and is now one more point in the lead.
“Aleix is not the most important thing, we have lost more than 40 points to Pecco in the last two races, so we have to wake up,” he set off the alarms.
“I see Pecco as more of a rival for the championship right now, he’s in a phase where it’s difficult to stop him so, of course, I see him as more of a rival than Aleix,” settled the boy from the Côte d’Azur.
