Quartararo heals, 'feels good' for Brno
The MotoGP summer break came at a good time for rookie star Fabio Quartararo, who was still recovering from right-arm surgery in June when he suffered a small dislocation to his left shoulder during practice in Germany.
The Frenchman went on to qualify on the front row at Sachsenring, for the fifth time in six events, only to fall for the first time in a MotoGP race.
The MotoGP summer break came at a good time for rookie star Fabio Quartararo, who was still recovering from right-arm surgery in June when he suffered a small dislocation to his left shoulder during practice in Germany.
The Frenchman went on to qualify on the front row at Sachsenring, for the fifth time in six events, only to fall for the first time in a MotoGP race.
That mistake ended a run of back-to-back podiums, but the Petronas Yamaha rider remains firmly in the fight for top satellite honours, sitting eighth in the world championship and just three points behind Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller.
The 20-year-old is also a healthy 28-points ahead of Joan Mir in the Rookie of the Year contest, heading into this weekend's Czech Republic MotoGP at Brno.
"I’ve been able to have some rest over the break to help to heal my arm and shoulder, and I’ve also been training hard ready for the rest of the season," said Quartararo.
"My arm and shoulder feels good now, and I’ve been doing some motocross to confirm it. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it’ll be during a race weekend again.
"My expectation will be the same as in the past few races; inside the top eight.
"We also know that we can be really fast in qualifying, so we can expect even better from that...”
Quartararo wasn't able to take a front-row or podium in the Moto3 and Moto2 classes at Brno but it's “a track I really like, because it’s fast, it has fun uphill changes of direction, and not so many straights."
Team-mate Franco Morbidelli is eleventh in the world championship, riding the Sepang team's factory spec M1.
“Brno is one of the best circuits on the calendar and it seems like it suits the Yamaha, so I’m really looking forward to going there," said the Italian, who has recently been on track at Misano, training on road bikes alongside VR46 mentor Valentino Rossi.
"I feel like we were quite strong in the last few races, and I hope I can start from there and improve from where we left off. It’s difficult to say what the target is because it depends on everyone else’s level too, but I think we can be very competitive and aim for the top five.”
Morbidelli finished 13th as a MotoGP rookie for Marc VDS at Brno last year.
