Fabio Quartararo sees French MotoGP sprint ‘disappointment’ as ‘a good thing’

Fabio Quartararo says it’s “a good thing” to be “disappointed” at missing the podium in the MotoGP French Grand Prix sprint having started from pole.

The factory Yamaha rider snatched a second successive MotoGP pole on Saturday morning after setting a new lap record of his home Le Mans circuit.

Fabio Quartararo then led the opening five laps of the sprint, but could do nothing to hold back eventual winner Marc Marquez on the sixth tour of 13.

The 2021 world champion would drop out of the top three as Gresini duo Alex Marquez and Fermin Aldeguer worked their way past him.

Quartararo missed the podium by just under eight tenths, but admitted afterwards that he knew there was nothing he could do to battle the Ducatis today.

“I mean, in the past we never almost reached a point in the sprint and to be disappointed with a P4 is a good thing,” he told the official MotoGP website.

“Of course, I wanted to be on the sprint podium but today we had to make an intelligent race and accept that the three guys in front of us were faster.

“But I enjoyed it and I think we gave a great show in the first laps.

“Hopefully tomorrow we have a little bit less tyre degradation.”

Quartararo noted that he always planned to push as hard as he did in the early stages of the sprint, but is “still really far” from the Ducatis in terms of top speed despite running an updated engine this weekend.

“It was always the plan because we are struggling a little bit with the power, even if the new engine is helping a little,” he added.

"But we can see we are still really far from the Ducatis on the straights and we know what we miss to really compete with them.

“We know, but to find it is more difficult for the engineers. But, like I said, it’s great to be disappointed with a P4 on the sprint and trying to make our best.”

Fabio Quartararo must have “intelligent” French GP

Quartararo’s long run pace during Friday practice was impressive and will make him a factor in the grand prix over 27 laps on Sunday.

Despite this, he says he must be “intelligent” in the main race and “accept” that there is no sense in crashing out of a good result for a podium he may not have the speed for.

“I mean, for me, we have to make like today: tomorrow we have to make an intelligent race, try to make the best position as possible,” he said.

“We know that sometimes we have to accept that to make a P4 doesn’t make any sense to crash to make a P3.

“Sometimes we have to accept that today we didn’t have the pace to make P3.

“But I enjoyed it a lot and to make a few laps already in the lead and being able to be quite close is great.”