Fabio Quartararo, who is now leading the championship, claims his eighth-place result in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix was “frustrating” since he “cannot overtake at all” on his Yamaha.
Quartararo arrived in Japan with a 10-point lead in the rankings and left with a marginally larger lead thanks to a dismal afternoon for his competitors.
Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia finished only 16th after changing to another bike due to a mapping problem on the warm-up lap, and Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati wrecked when attempting to pass Quartararo on the final lap.
Quartararo struggled to go over ninth place in the race, but as a result he currently holds an 18-point advantage in the championship.
Quartararo felt he could have contended for the top 5 if he had been able to overtake more readily, even though he is pleased to have reduced the harm to the rankings.
“With all the circumstances and with what happened, of course I would say it’s better to take eight points than lose eight points,” Quartararo said.
“But it’s good in one way but frustrating in another way because I feel our potential was not to fight with Jack for sure, because he was on another level today.
“But to fight with Marc [Marquez], Miguel [Oliveira was possible]. But I cannot overtake at all, I’m behind and we ride in a totally different way to the other riders.
“I catch up in sector two and three, and in sector four and one I lose so much.
“So, it’s frustrating because I could go faster, but no.
“We did also a few mistakes changing one thing before the race – was not the tyre, but was something that made our pace a little bit slower.”
Quartararo refused to reveal what change failed, but he did indicate that it was “a mistake” not to have tried the hard rear tyre at any stage this weekend given that it ended up being the winning option.
The Frenchman claims that on the final lap, he could hear Bagnaia colliding into him.
“I didn’t see him but I heard him crash,” Quartararo said.
“So, I think he didn’t crash so far from me. Of course, I saw, and I think the way they ride is really fast and also the hard rear was the correct tyre.
“They made a good job, the few riders who put in this tyre, and of course I knew he was coming.
“But I was struck behind Maverick [Vinales], even if Maverick had a great pace. But I was stuck behind and I couldn’t overtake. So, that was the difficult part.”
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