Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli ‘fighting for the title’ in Sepang MotoGP sprint
Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli discuss their “dogfight” in the Malaysian GP sprint
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo says his early battle with Franco Morbidelli in the MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix sprint was like both “were fighting for the championship”.
VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli qualified on the front row in third but dropped back at the start.
Going from fourth, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo battled hard with his former team-mate in the early laps, with Honda’s Joan Mir also getting involved.
Mir eventually broke away from the pair, but would crash on lap five, while Morbidelli beat Quartararo by almost two seconds at the chequered flag.
Morbidelli, who was fifth at the finish but was later promoted to fourth after a penalty for Fermin Aldeguer, branded his early battle “a dogfight”.
“I didn’t have a good start, and I found myself with Fabio and Joan Mir as well,” he said.
“It was a little bit of a dogfight at one point. Joan crashed, and I managed to pull away from Fabio.
“But I was too far from Alex, and I couldn’t do much more.”
Quartararo says his battle was like a championship finale going down to the last lap.
He also admits he lost time to the lead group, but doesn’t believe he could have done better than sixth at the chequered flag.
“Yeah, all fair,” he said.
“But, to be honest, we lost a lot of time. But it was a long time since I enjoyed a battle.
“Looks like we were both fighting for the championship, and it was the last lap.
“So, of course, we lost a lot of time, but I enjoyed it.
“I think this was our position at the end. We couldn’t do any better. So, quite happy with the race.”
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