The one in Great Britain was surely the worst weekend of the season for Fabio Quartararo, since in addition to finishing 8th at the finish line, he had to bear the weight of the long lap penalty that he carried from Assen throughout the grand prix. , a punishment that, finally, cost him just a second of time on the stopwatch, but that ended up separating him from the fight for the podium.
“After Silverstone I was a bit disappointed, but I used that anger to turn it into positive energy,” explains the championship leader ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
The Frenchman, who defends the MotoGP crown won last year, leads the competition, but the advantage over one of his most dangerous rivals, Pecco Bagnaia, has been cut by more than 40 points in just two races.
This escalation of the Ducati rider, now third overall with 59 points, and the regularity of Aleix Espargaró, second in the table, who only lost one point in the last round despite running with a broken heel, mean that Quartararo can’t relax for a minute.
“I’ve been training a lot and I feel focused and ready for the weekend,” says Fabio, who this weekend won’t have to deal with the pressure of the long lap.
“With no pending penalties, this grand prix will be more ‘normal’,” he admits.
Yamaha’s history at the Red Bull Ring does not record any victory, but Fabio does know what it is like to reach the podium on this track in the premier class.
“Our only goal is to do the best possible job here. We know that Spielberg is not our strongest track, but I got third place in 2019 and 2021. If we keep the right attitude and work hard, we can get good results,” says the Frenchman. , who does not look favorably on the change introduced with the new chicane at turn 2, as he already explained, here.
For Yamaha, Spielberg is still a pending issue, but the team is focused on forgetting the mistakes of Silverstone to return to enjoying a good atmosphere in the box.
“We didn’t get the results we expected at Silverstone and we learned from the mistakes we made,” admits sports director Massimo Meregalli , one of those who gave bad advice regarding the tires for the English race.
“The team is now totally focused on the task ahead of us because we know that Spielberg is a difficult circuit for us. We always enjoy traveling here, because the venue, the location and the atmosphere are great, but we know that this track, in theory , it doesn’t play in our favour. So we have to be smart this weekend and fight for the best possible result.”