Fabio Quartararo: “Nothing learned and nothing positive” in Indonesian MotoGP Sprint

Fabio Quartararo said there was “nothing positive” about his MotoGP Sprint in Indonesia.

The French rider was 12th when he crashed out of the 13-lap Mandalika race at turn two on the penultimate lap after being out-qualified by Alex Rins - who would go on to have his Sprint ruined by a misjudged overtake from Marc Marquez - for the first time in their spell as teammates at Monster Energy Yamaha.

“Nothing learned and nothing positive at the moment,” was Fabio Quartararo’s summary of his Sprint in Indonesia.

“The start was pretty strange,” he said, “I had like a slip of the clutch, then the touch with Bastianini so I was completely last. 

“Then I just tried to recover, tried to make my pace, but all weekend I felt super-bad on the bike, could not make my riding so it’s quite strange.”

The Monster Energy Yamaha rider added that he felt no better than Friday when asked if there had been any improvement compared to day one.

“For me, it’s the same [as Friday],” he said.

“I was not able to really improve my feeling, and also with all the tyres front and rear I’m not feeling comfortable. 

“The bike is quite unpredictable with the tyres, so just trying to understand how I can make it work but it’s quite complicated.”

The struggles Quartararo has faced this weekend mean he feels as though he is without a choice on rear tyre compound for Sunday’s race.

“I will not go with the medium [compound rear tyre],” he said.

“For us, warming it up is impossible, so I will go with the soft tomorrow that I think is the choice that I have to do to try something and hopefully we can make a better race.”

Bezzecchi “super-fast”

The standout rider so far in Indonesia has been Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi.

The Italian set a new lap record in qualifying to take pole position, then recovered to win the Sprint after a bad start that left him eighth on the opening lap.

Quartararo seemed slightly baffled by the difference in potential between himself and Bezzecchi this weekend.

“We saw Bezzecchi make the lap record, he’s super-fast,” Quartararo said in response to a question about the front tyre allocation in Indonesia.

“We see how quick he leans and how fast he’s going, so it’s quite complicated to understand. 

“But at least in our case I’ve never been great with any of the tyres, so this is the most difficult thing to understand.”