Fabio Quartararo explains rare last-place MotoGP finish at Aragon
Fabio Quartararo finished at the back of the field at the Aragon Grand Prix
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo says a trip through the gravel trap while battling for the points led to him finishing last in the MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix.
The 2021 world champion endured a tough Aragon weekend, as he struggled to 17th in qualifying before retiring from the sprint due to an engine blow-up.
In the grand prix, Fabio Quartararo dropped to the back of the pack on the opening lap, but was able to get into the points battle behind Pramac Yamaha stablemate Toprak Razgatlioglu.
However, on lap 15 of 23, he ran off-track and into the gravel, losing around 15 seconds and falling to last again.
He took the chequered flag in 18th as the last classified runner, just shy of two seconds behind Trackhouse Aprilia stand-in Lorenzo Savadori.
“No, at the start it was not good, but not so bad,” he said.
“I overtook [Luca] Marini, who overtook me in the first lap.
“I think it was [Brad] Binder or [Enea] Bastianini, but in the back straight, Binder, Marini overtook me, and I was in the slipstream.
“[They] braked a lot before than expected, but my rear locked and I went completely wide.
“Then behind Toprak I completely locked the front in [Turn] seven. I went wide, lost, I think, a few seconds.
“And then I went completely locked, and I went completely in the gravel.
“So I think I made a lap 15 seconds slower, and unfortunately then I was really, really far.
“But I knew this weekend was tough.
“I didn't make any positives from this weekend.
“So I will try to understand, but stop trying 100 things in a weekend.”
Quartararo added that track conditions were good, suggesting this was not the cause of his several lock-ups.
“For us, there is no grip all of the time. But for me, the conditions were not so bad,” he explained.
Quartararo’s lap 15 was a 2m08.091s, compared to the 1m48.120s that he set the previous tour while running in 16th.
Last at the Aragon Grand Prix marks just the third time in his MotoGP career in a full-distance race that Quartararo has finished at the back of the field.
The first time came in Thailand in 2024, though it is now back-to-back races in 2026 where this has happened, after he plummeted to 16th and last at the British Grand Prix at the start of August.
