Silverstone.- Fabio Quartararo will have to serve a long lap penalty during the first laps of the MotoGP race at the British Grand Prix this Sunday, a punishment that has been dragging on since Assen, when he collided with Aleix Espargaró, second overall and, now himself, his main rival in the fight for the championship.
The Frenchman arrived at Silverstone somewhat overwhelmed by the sanction, but after verifying that the long lap was not going to make him lose more than a second, he got a new push when he saw how Espargaró suffered a very strong crash in the first minutes of FP4, after having been the fastest in FP3. The Spaniard recovered in time to contest Q2, but finally finished further back than the Yamaha.
“I did one of my best laps of the year; I’m going to the limit. The pace is very good,” explained Quartararo after stopping the clock in 1.57.938, a great time, below the pole record set in 2019 by Marc Márquez, but insufficient to get out from the front row, which was his great goal.
The Yamaha rider wanted to come out ahead to minimize the long lap penalty as much as possible, but Johann Zarco, who achieved pole position, Maverick Viñales and Jack Miller blocked his path.
“The ideal is to take the penalty when the group is stretched out,” says Fabio, although the rule is that it should be taken between the second and fifth laps.
Despite the fact that Quartararo could not be close to pole after one lap, in terms of pace he considers that he is ready to be in the fight for victory.
“Zarco is the fastest, but we have the pace to fight. We’ll see how it goes with the penalty. Some say we’ll only lose eight tenths and that makes me laugh. We’ll lose more,” he said somewhat indignantly.
Quartararo has rehearsed the passage through the long lap on countless occasions throughout the weekend, he has it very much in hand, but he is not going to take unnecessary risks.
“I’d rather take it easy than finish on the ground. I don’t think it will change my life,” said the World Cup leader, who is 21 points clear of Aleix.
Between the two, on the grid, will be Pecco Bagnaia, who despite being 64 points behind Fabio, nobody rules him out completely.
“Pecco is not far away and Aleix, neither. The fall will not change anything in him,” he settled in reference to the costalazo suffered by the Catalan.
