Special Sunday livery for Fabio Quartararo at French MotoGP

Home star Fabio Quartararo will race in this special Sunday livery during the French MotoGP at Le Mans.

The 2021 world champion, who recently extended his Yamaha contract for a further two years, qualified a season-best eighth at Le Mans and finished tenth in the Sprint.

“Qualifying was more positive than the Sprint. We struggled with low-grip conditions for us during the Sprint race, so let's see if [on Sunday] we can do a little bit more,” Quartararo said.

One twist that might propel Quartararo up the order is the threat of Sunday rain, although the #20 warned that their grip issues are replicated in the wet, leaving only the chaos of a flag-to-flag to shake up his prospects.

“When the grip is low in the dry, it's even lower in the wet, so if it rains tomorrow, that won't give us an advantage,” he said. “The most important thing is that we give it our 100%.

“It's been a crazy weekend so far: we had special helmets, caps, and t-shirts that were already sold out from the first day. That's totally crazy! And of course it's great to see all the fans here.”

Team director Massimo Meregalli said he would prefer a dry grand prix for data gathering reasons.

“It might rain here, especially during the Race,” Meregalli said. “While this would certainly mix things up and add some possible excitement for the fans, we hope it stays dry as we would like to use [Sunday’s] track time to collect extra data ahead of our private test in Mugello next week.”

Quartararo team-mate Alex Rins crashed out of the Sprint.

“I'm all okay, but it was quite strange because I didn't have a moment before the crash. I would like to say that these things happen when you're pushing 100%,” Rins said.