Fabio Quartararo claims he “felt dumb” following his MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix accident in FP1, despite injuring himself leaping back onto his bike after the accident.
Approximately 15 minutes into Friday’s first practice at Jerez, the defending champion was thrown from his bike after hitting a wet area at the final lap.
He hopped back on his motorbike and rolled into pitlane, although he was noticeably winded after sustaining a groyne injury.
After qualifying quickest in FP2 by 0.201s, Quartararo made it back out for the rest of FP1 and went on to win the race outright.
While it appeared that Quartararo was hurt in the incident, he later confessed that he hurt his groyne when he went back on his motorbike after the spill and got trapped on the gasoline tank.
“I’m sore, I had a terrible five minutes after the crash,” Quartararo remarked when questioned how he felt following Friday’s race.
“But let’s say the pain is getting lower and lower, but I couldn’t breathe in one moment.
“It was myself [that caused my injury]. It was not even the bike. We put something new on the fuel tank and when I jumped on it [I hurt myself].
“I felt a little bit stupid because I crashed and did nothing.
“But when I took the bike and jumped on it [that’s what hurt]. So, maybe it was better to lie [and say] that it was the tyre – but I have to say I was stupid.”
After that collision, Quartararo’s FP1 practise was a bit sloppy, with the Yamaha racer making multiple flying lap errors in short succession.
But he claims it’s because he didn’t like the feel of the medium front tyre and wanted to prevent any more accidents.
“Was nothing strange, just pushing and at the end with the wet patches I had one crash,” he added.
“Then I had one moment I braked too late and with the medium front I felt super bad because I felt there was basically no support.
“I felt the tyre was moving a lot and I didn’t want to take any risk and try to turn and crash again.
“So, I preferred to go straight and one moment I made a mistake shifting into fourth gear when I had to go to second.”
Despite the dry conditions, heavy rain on Thursday caused some wet places on the Jerez racetrack for Friday’s practise, which took some racers off guard, including Quartararo.
Marc Marquez also wrecked when riding back to pitlane on a wet section at Turn 8, and Quartararo admitted that he wishes something is done about it for Saturday since it is “very risky.”
“Normally here at Jerez on Friday it’s super tough, so I was quite surprised because normally every Friday from our side we go not so great and today we made a good step,” he said.
“Even on FP2 there was some wet patches at Turn 8, and it’s not a good place to have them.
“So, I hope tomorrow even if it’s dry that someone really goes with something to dry it because to be honest it’s a place where it’s quite dangerous [to have a damp patch].
“The last corner it’s slow, but at Turn 8 you can have a big crash from the front or from the rear. So, it was a bit tricky.”
Below are some of the most well-known MOTOGP riders’ uniforms, all of which are available at reasonable costs. Visit our link now if you are interested in the racing clothing collection:
Fabio Quartararo, Grand Prix, MOTO, Moto racing, Motocross, MotoGP, MXGP, Yamaha
