Yamaha factory rider Fabio Quartararo experienced a wave of positive surprise at his race pace during the Qatar MotoGP sprint race on Saturday.
The 2021 world champion translated a confidence-boosting front-row start into a commendable fifth-place finish at the checkered flag.
Quartararo briefly held third position at the start, mirroring his impressive qualifying performance. He was soon overtaken by Franco Morbidelli on the VR46 Ducati and maintained fourth place until the very last corner. A late error unfortunately allowed rookie Fermin Aldeguer to snatch the position.
Despite the final-corner setback, Quartararo’s spirits remained high. His fifth-place result marked an improvement over his previous best sprint finish of the year, which was sixth place achieved in Austin two weeks prior.
“It was positive to see the pace we had over 11 laps. I was a bit worried about that,” Quartararo admitted, expressing his pleasant surprise.
“The race was pretty good. We had a pretty good pace but unfortunately it’s complicated to prepare an overtake on the Ducatis. I think I made a very good start, a good first lap, but it was complicated to do better.”
While Quartararo had anticipated a more challenging race, he stated that his sensational qualifying lap was not entirely unexpected.
“I knew I was going to make a really, really good qualifying lap. I didn’t know it was going to be that good – but it was one of the first times [I could] push that much to the limit and make zero mistakes. I haven’t been able to do that for a very long time, because when things are not working perfectly you’re always pushing too much, making small mistakes. Today I made no mistakes on the fast lap… and it felt fast.”
The front-row start in Qatar was Quartararo’s first since the Dutch TT back in 2022, highlighting the significance of this achievement.
“That’s quite a [long] time and I think it’s interesting,” he reflected. “I’m having a lot more fun on a qualifying lap than in a race. To go flat out like that on a lap is exceptional and I think it was the best moment of the day. Frankly, it’s been a long time since we had such a positive Saturday.”
This strong performance followed Quartararo’s declaration on Thursday that he would refrain from altering his bike settings throughout the weekend, opting instead to explore new limits through his own riding style.
Quartararo, who secured a victory at the Losail circuit during his championship-winning year in 2021, acknowledged that the Yamaha M1 still possesses characteristics that suit the track.
“The bike suits the track quite well. I think this is really positive and we have to take the benefit. It’s not always that we have this feeling so I had to throw everything [at it] and hopefully at the next races we have the same feeling. It’s a really long time since I felt like that over one lap. And we are I think 1.2 seconds faster than last year so it’s really, really good. It feels great, especially the qualifying – not seeing anyone in front [on the grid] makes a change!”