Quartararo calls new fairing a ‘disturbance’, reverts back to old one

After clinching a surprising second place finish, a result that sees Quartararo extend his points lead over Aleix Espargaro, swapping back to his standard bike turned out to be the correct call after the Yamaha rider struggled for much of the Italian MotoGP.  

Quartararo seemed to lack the necessary tenths in order to fight for the win heading into Sunday’s Grand Prix, however, Quartararo managed to turn a weekend where ‘I wasn’t feeling great’, into one of his best this season. 

• Rins slams ‘super dangerous’ Nakagami move, Stewards decision 
• Marc Marquez: ‘Like this, I cannot continue, I hope my life will change’ 
• MotoGP Mugello Rider Ratings: Is Brad Binder’s fightback enough for top marks?

Included in that was the ability to overtake Ducati’s on multiple occasions, whether that be in turns one or during the switchback of two and three, another surprise given the straight-line advantage Ducati had. 

Despite building his lead in the championship, Quartararo was disappointed by the lack of performance from the new fairing, instead claiming it ‘disturbed’ him throughout the weekend. 

"It was tough as I wasn’t feeling great with the bike this weekend," said the French rider. "The new fairing disturbed us all weekend. We thought that such a small difference with a fairing would not be a problem but we decided to go back to our standard bike. 

"We lost a little bit of top speed [because of it], but when you have slipstream in front of you then it’s not so bad. 

"I didn’t complain about the top speed all weekend. Last year I was riding super good, the pace was good, but this year it was not. I was happy to go back to the standard bike and fight like hell with the Ducati."

‘You expect an update to feel better’ says the MotoGP champion 

Delving further into the details, Quartararo claimed the new fairing had a top speed improvement of 1kp/h, a number that’s clearly not enough when he’s been over 10kp/h down on Ducati, Aprilia and KTM bikes at times. 

Quartararo added: "When you have an update you expect to feel better, but it’s also good when you receive an update early in the season, even though I was expecting an update with more top speed. 

"I thought the fairing would have more top speed but you need to analyse the positive and the negative. The fairing had much more negatives. We were clever with the team to say that it goes 1kp/h faster but we need to go back to the other one because we’re losing much more in other areas."

Close moments due to riding ‘on the limit’ 

Quartararo had several close moments with other riders during Sunday’s Grand Prix, the first of which came when Espargaro overtook him at turn six.

The two title contenders nearly made contact as Quartararo had to take avoiding action and run to the outside of the circuit. Another close moment arrived when Quartararo defended P2 heading into turn one; eager not to lose out to the Ducati, Quartararo released the brake as Bezzecchi began to turn in, which meant both riders ran wide.  

"I was on the limit many times," said Quartararo. "One time when I was with; I don’t remember if it was Luca [Marini] or Marco [Bezzecchi], but on the straight he overtook me and then I released the brake as he was turning but I didn’t want to lose that place. I released the brake also and felt the brake was moving so much."