Few if any significant technical advances have been offered by Yamaha to Fabio Quartararo, during the season, to defend himself in his fight for the world championship. Since the Frenchman took the lead in the general classification in Portimao (April 24), he has commanded the World Championship with advantages that have become very important, but little by little, Pecco Bagnaia and the push of Ducati have been dissolving them until completely absorbing them in Australia, where the Italian finished the sorpasso and now leads the contest with an advantage of 14 points over the Devil, to which he has endorsed 105 points in eight races.
Now, with the season completely compromised and with almost no room for reaction, at Yamaha they assure that they are going to do the rest, a speech that few can believe.
“The Australian Grand Prix didn’t go the way we wanted,” team sporting director Massimo Meregalli explains the obvious in the build-up to the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The remontada de Pecco Bagnaia
Photo by: motogp.com
“We have lost the leadership of the championship,” he adds for those who have not detected it yet.
However, Meregalli clings to the options that are still alive for Quartararo.
“The difference is 14 points and there are two more races left.”
Although it seems impossible to fix in three weeks what has been dynamiting for months, at Yamaha they say they are going to try.
“We have seen how quickly things can change in MotoGP, so we will keep pushing, leave no stone unturned and take every opportunity that comes our way to help Fabio fight for the championship title.”
enjoy the ride
Since the middle of the season, especially after the Assen race, Quartararo has gone from driving the attack to defending himself as best he could.
“After the disappointing finish in Australia, we have a difficult but not impossible task ahead of us,” explains the Frenchman in qualifying.
“We have to close a gap of 14 points with two races remaining. We will do everything we can this weekend in Sepang to recover some points”, and thus take the championship decision to a final and exciting race in Valencia.
“As I said after the Phillip Island race, I want to focus on enjoying the riding again, which is when I’m usually faster,” the Frenchman hastens his options.
