Quartararo reappears after his fright and the "disappointing result" of Thailand

October 12, 2022

Eleven days after the MotoGP race of the Thai Grand Prix , in which the leader of the world championship finished in an incomprehensible 17th position, 34 seconds behind the winner, Miguel Oliveira, the French Yamaha rider will once again publicly reappear on the wheel press release ahead of the Australian Grand Prix , which takes place this weekend at Phillip Island .

During these eleven days, Fabio Quartararo has practically disappeared, he has not shown, as usual, part of his activity on social networks, in which it seems that he has taken a break, even threatening to close his account of instagram, which remained suspended for a few hours leaving its more than two million followers in suspense.

The Frenchman uploaded a brief post on October 3, and since then he has shown no signs of life.

For the first time since he was in the World Championship, Quartararo left a grand prix without speaking to the members of his team, as they admitted from Yamaha, nor did he attend to the media, so we will have to wait until this Thursday to try to understand the moment of the state of mind of the still leader of the championship, although now with only two points over Pecco Bagnaia, whom he managed to lead with 91 before the race in the Netherlands , at the end of June.

As usual, Yamaha released this Wednesday a press release prior to the weekend’s grand prix, and in it you can read a statement supposedly from Quartararo, in which he does not hide his displeasure at what happened in Buriram , in a race declared in the wet and in which he could not score any points, something that had only happened in Assen (two crashes) and Aragón (touch with Marc Márquez in the first lap).

“The result in Thailand was very disappointing,” admits Quartararo in the preview sent by Yamaha, before explaining the reason for his retirement. “After Thailand I was able to focus on preparing for this final part of the season.”

“I have spent the week training and preparing myself because the next two races are back-to-back and they are going to be very important, but I don’t feel worried. The championship is now on equal terms, so it’s about doing the best possible, working well together as a team and to add as many points as possible”, ends his statement.

Yamaha calls for “positive attitude”

From the team they feel equally disappointed with what happened in Buriram , but the Yamaha sports director, Massimo Meregalli , asks not to think negatively.

“The previous race ended in a disappointing way for us, especially for Fabio, but with three grands prix ahead of us, it is not the time to think negatively,” he asks.

“We have a job to do, and we will do it with a positive attitude,” says Meregalli.

As happened with Japan and Thailand , the World Cup returns to Australia after almost three years of absence due to the pandemic, with the consequent lack of data, a handicap that seems to have conditioned the Yamaha more than the Ducati.

“It’s been three years since we last visited Phillip Island , so all the teams have to go through the 2019 data to find a good base set-up,” he warns, before recalling that M1s once ruled the island. .

“Historically it is a strong track for us, it suits the M1 and we are 100% dedicated to getting good results this weekend,” said the Italian.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP