Quartararo: Marc is the best, congratulations 'for what he’s doing'

Fabio Quartararo said he can’t help but admire Marc Marquez’s mental strength in continuing to push to the maximum despite numerous accidents and injuries.

Peter McLaren

19 Jun 2023

Fabio Quartararo, MotoGP race, German MotoGP, 18 June

Marquez finally withdrew from the German MotoGP weekend after a fifth accident, and finger fracture, in warm-up.

The Repsol Honda rider has suffered twelve accidents so far this season, equal with team-mate Joan Mir and brother Alex at the top of the falls list, even though the #93 missed three of the seven rounds due to injuries in Portimao.

Since his return, Marquez has continued to be the fastest RCV rider, but crashed again in the grand prix races at Le Mans and Mugello while trying to stay with the podium contenders, prior to the punishing Sachsenring weekend.

“Of course, it's difficult for him,” said fellow former champion Quartararo. “Since 2020 with the injury - he has been on the podium, some wins - but for me, he is the best.

“He's giving 100% all the time. Who has crashed five times just to try to be better, try to be on top? He's mentally one of the strongest here. A moment arrives when you know you get injured and he broke his thumb this morning, pushing himself to the maximum.

“It’s strange to say this, but for me congratulations for what he's doing.”

Many see similarities between Marquez and Quartararo in terms of having to push less competitive machines to the limit.

“The Honda is turning a little bit better than us, but especially on braking, we are a little bit better than them. So this can avoid a little bit the crashes [for Yamaha riders], but you are on the limit basically all the time,” Quartararo acknowledged.

The Frenchman’s own Sachsenring weekend saw forgettable 13th places in both the Sprint and main race, where he gambled on running the soft rear tyre. As for Aleix Espargaro, it didn’t work, but Quartararo admitted things wouldn’t have been much different on the medium.

“The position we were, I wanted to give a try to the soft. Totally wrong!” he said. “I thought I needed a little bit more grip for the first laps after the Moto2 race [rubber], but actually I did not have more grip and just the tyre was dropping so much. So wrong decision with the tyres, but to finish P10 or P13 for me was not a big, big difference.”

Sachsenring was the scene of Quartararo’s most recent MotoGP victory, one year ago, when he also led the world championship standings.

The #20 heads to Assen just eighth in this year’s title fight.