‘Physical issue’ from pre-race massage hampered Fabio Quartararo

Fabio Quartararo has revealed that an ‘aggressive’ arm massage before the French MotoGP led to arm pump problems during the Le Mans race.

Peter McLaren

14 May 2023

Fabio Quartararo, MotoGP sprint race, French MotoGP, 13 May

The former world champion was able to progress from 13th on the grid to seventh, aided by accidents ahead, but felt more was possible pace-wise without the unexpected arm issue.

“Six people in front of me crashed, so it's not a recovery," Quartararo said. "I've had a physical issue from the middle of the race.

"This morning I've been to the Clinica and I had the treatment on my arm it was for me way too aggressive and I had arm pump from the middle of the race.

"I could have been much, much, much faster. So this is the only point I'm happy with that with the bike that we race, we could be faster, but actually what I had this morning was not good for the race."

The Frenchman added: "Since Jerez two years [when he had an arm pump operation] I never had any issue. But was just the treatment that I had in the morning.

"This year they asked me to [take] turns a little bit with every physio. So I've been to already everyone I think. But now I will always follow with the same person that I think is the correct choice to do."

Quartararo, who crashed out of the Saturday sprint, is now ninth in the world championship, 45 points from Francesco Bagnaia.

"Today without the problem, I could have been at least half a second faster. Just because I was not able to brake. So this is the only positive I could take. But for the championship, at the moment, I don't think about it because I think we are way too far to fight for it."