The Frenchman took pole position for the Mugello race and fended off Johann Zarco after the second lap crash of then leader Pecco Bagnaia to dominate and take his third win of the year.
It did so despite Yamaha ‘s considerable top speed disadvantage in 2021, but it is the second time since Losail that the team has won on a track with a long straight where Ducati was expected to reign supreme.
A key update for Yamaha at Mugello was the introduction of its holeshot device, which allowed Quartararo, who now leads the championship by 24 points, to drop just one position at the start of last Sunday’s race.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he felt Yamaha now have a complete package, he said: “Yes, I think we have a complete package.
“I think, okay, the top speed is not the best, but we’ve won on two tracks that were actually Ducati-owned.
“Everyone said that the Ducati would be dominant in Qatar, the Ducati would be dominant here. But really, I think nobody expected to have a Yamaha, a KTM and a Suzuki on the podium.”
“I think what we missed was the starting device, because our starts were terrible and we improved a lot.”
“So I think over one lap, first of all, top speed isn’t that important and I think for the race I’ve had the confidence that even if we didn’t have top speed, I could drive without it.
“But our bike is going very well, I have a very good feeling at the front. And in the end there are not many tracks where there is a long straight, so we will see in Barcelona, where I was also very good.”
His teammate Maverick Vinales suffered a tough race from 13th on the grid after a controversial qualifying with Márquez.
He recovered to eighth place in the race, blaming his problems on his choice of the medium front tire .
“I really thought that the result would be totally different because it is a track that I like, a track that I feel good on,” Viñales said.
“Somehow after FP1 I lost feeling. The only thing I changed from FP1 to FP2 is the front tyre, I just put the medium and then the problems started.
“I don’t know why we didn’t try the soft front again. I think we didn’t pay enough attention to that because in FP1 the first touch was fantastic, I did 1m47.1s in just six laps.
“So basically it looks like I missed a lot of laps. So we have to check it out, we have to analyze it.”
“In a way it’s difficult because I got a bad result, but in another way it’s positive because we have data from FP1 to understand why.”
“That’s the most important thing. We have the data to analyze and we have a driver in our team who is winning,” concluded the #12.
The photos of the Italian GP 2021 in Mugello
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