Riding a Yamaha that he himself describes as “standard”that is to say which has not evolved since the Spanish Grand Prix despite the host of parts tested during the Jerez test, Fabio Quartararo offered himself and offered to the numerous French supporters already present around the Bugatti circuit of Le Mans the surprise of a direct qualification for Q2 this Saturday, with a time four tenths from the best mark of the day.
To achieve this 10th place, he had to choose his tires carefully and then use force, as he explained this Friday at the end of the day: “I gave everything. The window we have for the bike to be like it is very narrow. I think we made an excellent choice with the hard tire at the front. I attacked at the absolute limit. When I did the first time attack, I think I was already eighth, so I had to push even more and I improved. It was at the limit but more than direct qualification in Q2, we are less than two tenths from third so that’s positive.” In reality the Frenchman is 0″213 behind third place occupied by Pedro Acosta.
Asked about the influence of the audience in such a performance, he explained: “It’s difficult because in the end we always give 100%, but it’s certain that when we see so many fans, we always try to do a little bit better. I think that today, clearly we have pushed ourselves to 100% of our capabilities and I think it was cool to do that.”
A performance all the more astonishing as it owes nothing to an evolution of the M1 since Jerez. Also, when asked to measure the progress made to climb into the top 10, the 2021 World Champion responded: “Unfortunately, none at the moment, because we are riding the standard bike, and we have to take a step forward, especially in terms of grip, not only for traction but also when entering a curve.”
Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
However, when looking for an explanation for the best rated on the Sarthe circuit, Quartararo points to the natural progression made in recent years, particularly on the engine and holeshot device side: “For us, clearly, compared to the past, we turn much less well than before, but there is a lot more acceleration. We have from the last corner to the first, from turn 6 to 7, from 7 to 8 , from 8 to 9, so these are accelerations where the engine is much more powerful.”
“The holeshot device is better than two years ago. I take two years ago as a reference, because last year we were also slower. The engine is doing a lot, but if we had the turning point of 2022 and this year’s engine, I think both Yamahas would be much higher [dans la hiérarchie].”
When it was reported to him that his teammate Álex Rins had complained of a lack of grip, Quartararo added: “Grip is our main problem because we saw that it was a nightmare with the medium this morning, not on the bike but with the tire. As soon as we have a little more grip, our bike behaves completely differently so you have to understand why with more grip, the bike has totally changed because before, we used to lose a little performance, but not as much as now, this is the main thing to improve. the grip, and the turning.”
It remains to be seen whether the M1 still has the potential to offer him better than tenth place during qualifying this Saturday, he who will therefore taste Q2 for the second time after Portugal: “I don’t know if there’s any left [dans la moto] but tomorrow I will give everything I have to qualify for the best position. But obviously, tomorrow we will be very, very close to our limit. We will try not to exceed it! [rires]”
With Vincent Lalanne-Sicaud
