The sixth round of the MotoGP, the French Grand Prix, was held from May 9th to 11th at the Le Mans-Bugatti Circuit in France, and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo took his second pole position of the season.
He finished fourth in the sprint race and crashed out of the final race, but it was a testament to Yamaha’s progress.
Quartararo’s pole time and the expected difficulty of the race
At the end of the French Grand Prix weekend, Johann Zarco (Honda) was the one basking in the cheers of Le Mans after his dramatic victory in Sunday’s final race, but there’s no denying that Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)’s Q2 (Qualifying 2) lap time on Saturday was also sensational.
Yamaha is running a new engine at Le Mans, and Quartararo and teammate Alex Rins were generally positive about the new engine after Friday, though their comments suggested it wasn’t a dramatic improvement.
While the engine likely played a major role, Quartararo posted a time of 1 minute 29.324 seconds, beating the all-time lap record of 1 minute 29.855 seconds set by Marc Marquez (Ducati) in Friday afternoon practice. This was his second pole position of the season, following his win in the previous race, the Spanish Grand Prix, and his third consecutive front row start.
Although he finished fourth in Saturday afternoon’s sprint race and crashed out of Sunday’s final race, which took place in complicated wet conditions, Quartararo himself had anticipated that he would struggle in the race.
After Saturday’s sprint race, Quartararo said in a press conference:
“I knew the whole race would be harder than qualifying because every little detail matters. But a one-lap time attack is basically a lot crazier. It was a good lap.”
“What’s really important about our bike is this ‘quick burst’. We know that we don’t have amazing power, we don’t have enough grip, our aerodynamics isn’t as good as the others, and there are many things we’re lacking. For one lap it’s not a big deal, but in a race, all of this matters. But there’s no doubt that starting a race from the front row is a completely different experience than starting from the back of the second row.”
“Our advantage is our first shot at qualifying. Now we have to be really fast and push to the limit to get on the front row.”
Quartararo points out that the YZR-M1 lacks grip, power and has wheelies as an issue.
Even after the final race, which ended in a crash, he said, “I knew the pace was difficult to beat for a win or a podium finish.”
Quartararo knew that the current YZR-M1 would be difficult to compete with the Ducati riders at Le Mans, and the results proved to be as accurate as they were. However, with the Yamaha up until 2024, it would have been difficult for Quartararo to achieve the same qualifying results, no matter how hard he pushed at his favorite circuit (Jerez) or his home track at Le Mans.
Quartararo and Rins will be conducting a private test at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy before racing in the British Grand Prix. The search for improvements continues. Of course, Ducati is also continuing to improve, and it will not be easy to catch up with the advancing rivals. As Quartararo feels, it will not be long before they can “fight” the Ducati team. However, the most important thing right now is that Yamaha is certainly making progress, and that progress is beginning to translate into results.
Quartararo has taken pole position for the second consecutive race. He still struggles in some areas of the race, but his progress is leading to results. ©Eri Ito
