At the Circuit of Americas, the Yamaha rider placed sixth, the highest non-Ducati rider, and showed good speed throughout practise.
Quartararo, on the other hand, was unable to launch a podium challenge and finished seventh after a late duel with Honda’s Marc Marquez.
With only one podium in his championship defence, the Frenchman is seventh in the rankings, 17 points behind Americas GP winner Enea Bastianini.
“To be honest, when we are on this kind of circuit, we are not ready to fight for the podium,” Quartararo remarked when questioned by Motorsport.com if he believes the 2022 Yamaha is a motorbike he can compete for the title with.
“But now we are going to Europe, better tracks – I think – for us and I’m just going to do my best to fight for the championship.
“Then, if the bike is ready? I have my opinion, but I give all the time my 100% – like today. For sixth position or seventh, I give my 100% all the time.”
When asked about his thoughts on the Yamaha, Quartararo said, “I’ll keep it for myself.”
Quartararo believes he had the same difficulty with a lack of power at COTA that he had in Argentina, albeit it wasn’t as severe.
“I mean in the beginning of the race it’s a little bit same problem as Argentina but much less, that basically we missed that initial grip compared to the others,” he added.
“But I think I managed OK, I was able to defend quite OK and in the beginning it was more difficult because everyone is more tight and the straight is unfortunately we were losing quite a lot.
“But I think we made a really good race, I enjoyed a lot, we battled really hard even if it was for sixth position.
“I enjoyed the battle with Marc. Just even if we are struggling, for me I learned more from this kind of race than some races that I’ve won.
“Today I learned a lot and I’m happy because even if I have less power, I pushed myself to the limit. So the day I have the power I will have much better result.”
The next two races are in Portimao and Jerez, both of which Quartararo won in 2021, although he believes the former will be “50/50” for Yamaha.
“I will say Portimao is good, not the best,” he said when asked if he thought the Portugal/Spain back-to-back would be better for Yamaha.
“Depends a lot there. If you start first and make your pace it’s great, but later in the year last year I was stuck behind Ducatis and I couldn’t overtake.
“But if you go away or are in the top three, you can manage to get a good result. So, this [Portimao] is 50/50 and Jerez will be a good track for us.”
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Fabio Quartararo, Grand Prix, MOTO, Moto racing, Motocross, MotoGP, MXGP, Yamaha
