Fabio Quartararo: Mandalika podium ‘the best of the year’

Despite two other podiums so far this season, Quartararo was very clear about which one was the most significant.

Yes, Jorge Martin crashing out of the lead helped the Yamaha rider in a big way, but the pace shown by Quartararo was very impressive.

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The 2021 world champion was quicker than both Francesco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales during the closing stages, which is why he managed to close a near three second deficit down to a few tenths come the final lap.

“This is the best podium of the year,” began Quartararo. “In India I was nine seconds from Bezzecchi and in Austin I made the podium but I was a little bit too far from the winners. 

“Today, I really recovered to the top two and really caught up with them due to my speed. 

“Not because of the consequences in the race. It’s the best podium of the year but Australia is different. 

“Last year we suffered a lot and it’s a track where you have to take care of the tyres. It’s going to be tricky.”

Although he showed great pace and was rarely outside the top five in both races this weekend, Quartararo had to overcome slow warm-up witht the rear tyre which is why he slipped further back during the early stages.

Summing up the weekend, Quartararo said: “It was great! Especially the second part of the race. To be honest, my feeling this morning was not good in the first laps. 

“On the warm-up lap I pushed a lot because we were struggling to heat up the rear tyre and then after 2-3 laps it was ok. 

“Our pace in the middle part of the race was good and although I couldn’t try and overtake it was a great race. 

“I think I was 3.5 seconds from Pecco at one stage of the race. To finish really close was good for us.”