British MotoGP polesitter Fabio Quartararo gives glum verdict for Sunday race

British Grand Prix polesitter Fabio Quartararo “cannot be optimistic” for Sunday’s MotoGP race at Silverstone as the Yamaha is suffering in the circuit’s low-grip conditions.

The 2021 world champion snatched a third successive pole for the first time since his title-winning year on Saturday at Silverstone with a new lap record.

But his time leading the field in the sprint lasted just 14 corners as he was quickly overhauled by the Marquez brothers, before fading to seventh by the chequered flag.

Sprint winner Alex Marquez and second-placed Marc Marquez told the media they expected a strong challenge from Fabio Quartararo, which the Yamaha rider agreed with.

However, he said the rear grip on his soft tyre was “critical” and was less than hopeful of a strong grand prix when the rear choice will be the harder medium option.

“I expected to be faster but the grip for us was clearly really critical and I could not be fast,” he told the media on Saturday at Silverstone.

“We had a lot of chatter. It was a big gap between the feeling of this morning and the feeling this afternoon.

“And this has been a little bit of an usual feeling and we don’t understand why. So we have to understand this, especially on the low-grip tracks.”

He added: “Being honest with you, we cannot be really optimistic for tomorrow.

“After the Moto2 race [and the Pirelli rubber it will leave on track], starting with the medium rear, everything will be with less grip and we know that is clearly a situation that is not great. But we will try to enjoy the race and give our best.”

All Yamaha riders battled grip issues in the sprint, which Quartararo says is a combination problem emanating from the bike and the track conditions.

“I think that in the morning if you have one type of grip and in the afternoon it is less, the delta between the other bikes is really big,” he explained.

“If there is a small difference on the grip, for us we feel it like 10 times more than the others and we see that the pace we had in the sprint, compared to what we are used to, was super slow.

“We have to understand why when the conditions drop, we drop and we don’t generate any kind of grip.

“First lap, Alex Marquez overtook me before the finish line. I’m not stupid, I know how to ride, but overtaking me in this situation in this position is frustrating.”

Quartararo noted that the chatter problems he had in the sprint led to him “jumping” in some corners.

Yamaha can’t use all power from new engine

Quartararo was still on for a top five result in the latter stages of the sprint having held eventual third-place finisher Fabio Di Giannantonio on the factory-spec VR46 Ducati at bay.

But he says this was down to the M1’s new, lighter aero update brought to Silverstone rather than the new engine introduced at Le Mans, which he can’t fully exploit due to the bike’s lack of “mechanical grip”.

“It’s some positives but if you check my top speed I’m last by far and even if the new engine is better, we have to think that the aero package we have is much lighter than there [Ducati’s] one.

“But they go much faster.

“So, I don’t know exactly how much more horsepower they have, but we see the small difference we made on the aero from the Misano test has been a small advantage.

“So, I cannot imagine with this big aero how much it helps. Yeah, it’s better, but we miss a lot.

“We cannot use the [full] power because clearly the mechanical grip we have is way too low.

“On one lap it’s ok, but in the race, where Alex Marquez overtook me, is clearly a place where it’s impossible to overtake.

“Apparently it’s possible, but I’ve never overtaken someone in my whole career like that. But we can’t use the power that we have.”