Fabio Quartararo “clearly on the limit” in Pecco Bagnaia Aragon MotoGP Sprint battle

Two years ago a battle between Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo would have meant a battle for the championship. Bagnaia may have lost the points lead in the Aragon MotoGP Sprint, but he lost it to Jorge Martin, and his battle with Quartararo was over eighth.

Such has been Yamaha’s decline that it took Bagnaia’s worst Sprint of the season, at least of those he’s finished, and perhaps Quartararo’s best to put them in range of each other on-track.

“I made a great start,” Quartararo told MotoGP.com after the race. “Also, I see some riders that spin a lot in front of me, so I tried to jump on the opportunity to make a great start and to make the best.

“The pace was not super-fast in front of us. We struggled all the weekend, but at least we fight with great people, with Pecco [Bagnaia] — I think it was years that I was not battling with him like that, even if he had one of the toughest Sprints of his season.

“But at least we took the opportunity for us to bring some smiles to the people in the box and to myself.”

Quartararo explained that to fight with Bagnaia meant he had to be on the limit of the capabilities of his Yamaha M1.

“I was clearly on the limit,” he said. “I was doing many mistakes and it was Pecco [Bagnaia] in front of me so he was riding fast. I was struggling a lot to try and overtake, and on the last lap I could try.

“So, it was positive and hopefully we can bring some great movement also tomorrow.”

Quartararo and Yamaha had made changes compared to Friday, but Quartararo put his result down more to the struggles of others rather than his own improvement.

“We see clearly in the qualifying that we were super-far,” Quartararo said. “In the race, the pace was not better but just the same and maybe some riders struggle a little bit, we were doing many mistakes. But at least we are giving our best and today was a fun one for us.”

Can Quartararo repeat his top-10 performance in the full-length Grand Prix on Sunday?

“We will see,” he said. “It’s complicated. We will analyse well because the front tyre was completely destroyed. But hopefully we can enjoy the race.”