Portimao.- Until this Sunday, El Diablo was the only rider in the three categories who had scored a point at all the stops on the calendar. The streak was broken in Portugal, luckily two weeks after becoming world champion.
Quartararo started from seventh position on the grid, on the third row. But far from being able to gain some places in the first laps, the Yamaha rider stayed there and was even overtaken by Iker Lecuona, before rearming himself and getting involved in a brawl with Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco, Pramac’s partner.
After overtaking the Spaniard with five laps to go, the Nice rider crashed while chasing his compatriot, seeing himself in the dirty area of a left turn and losing the front end. As he acknowledged later, he could have gone long, let several rivals overtake him and rejoin the track. However, the fact of having the title in his possession made him take a risk that, this time, led him to have a romp.
“When I was behind the Ducatis, I couldn’t overtake them. I was many laps behind Martín, without being able to overtake him despite being a second faster per lap”, summed up Quartararo , who has been asking Yamaha for months to focus on increasing the power of its prototype with a view to the future.
“We lack a lot of speed. And if you don’t get the timing right you can say goodbye to fighting for victory. If I had started later I would have been able to fight with Pecco [Bagnaia] for the victory”, continued the French rider, very insistent on the message for Yamaha with a view to next year.
“Yamaha has to push a lot for the engine, because for the future it will not be easy”, concluded the #20 .
(Click on this link or on the image to see all the photos of Fabio Quartararo at the 2021 MotoGP Algarve GP)
