Six races completed with a balance of three victories, one third, one fifth and thirteenth for Jerez after forearm problems when he was leading the race. And seven official training sessions: second in the first in Qatar, fifth in the second, and then five poles in a row, the last one yesterday at the Barcelona-Catalonia Circuit. On a track where he won in 2020, where he was second in 2019, in his debut season in MotoGP, and where he had won in Moto2 in 2018. Fabio Quartararo reimposed his law with a first place on the starting grid in the race of the Grand Prix of Catalonia.
The classification, before the 10,021 spectators who witnessed the day live, did nothing but confirm that the Frenchman has one more point than his rivals, as he revealed with his performance in the fourth free practice session, that which is reserved to work without the ties of qualifying for the race. In that session, Quartararo signed a record more than four tenths faster than that of his teammate, Maverick Viñales, with up to eight faster turns than the best of the Spanish pilot.
“The truth is that I had had a similar experience when I was in the Spanish Championship in 2014,” said the author of the pole and leader of the general of the queen class about his current state of grace. “That was fantastic, but it can’t be compared to what I’m experiencing now in MotoGP. Last year I had great moments in Jerez, but I had ups and downs. This year I am feeling very good and I am managing to maintain a good rhythm. It will not be difficult to keep my feet on the ground, because my line of work is working well and I do not need to change anything, “he added after the day before a race in which he will have the Ducati of Jack Miller and Johann Zarco and for which there is no intuition of a rival who could overshadow him, although Track conditions could change if it ends up raining, which would clean the rubber track.
“I think a few of us can stop him” he pointed out laughing about Quartararo champion Joan Mir, which returned to puncture in the launched lap, which left him in a poor tenth place in the official. “I don’t think I have the race won, far from it. But it is true, and let’s face it, that he comes out in front and has a good pace. And that makes it difficult to come back for someone who has a rhythm and is behind. At the end of the race, then we can make it or not, last year we were close to doing it, but this year I don’t know how far we will go with the package we have. It will be difficult to get there, but I’m going to give it my all, “added the Spaniard. And it is that if the MotoGP races on the Catalan track have revealed one thing, and with the most vivid example of what was seen in 2020, it is that the tires can lead to a finish with many changes depending on how each motorcycle and each rider are able to preserve them.
On the other hand, yesterday the Catalan Grand Prix once again exposed the reality of Honda. Pol Espargaró placed twelfth, as the best of the golden wing pilots, although it ended on the floor in Q2. Marc Márquez will start a position behind, this after he was not able to take advantage of Miller’s wheel in Q1, in a strategy, to weld himself to a rival, who had tried with a little more success last week in Italy.
“It is clear that we are in a difficult moment, trying to find the way, trying to find what is happening, because it is not normal that all Honda pilots are complaining about the same thing. But HRC is working to give us solutions for the future, “he acknowledged. Marc Márquez after the umpteenth bad day at the Japanese factory (Takaaki Nakagami was fourteenth and Álex Márquez twentieth), who along with Aprilia is the only one that this year has not been on the podium and has not even been able to place one of his four riders on the front row of a starting grid of the seven stakes at this point in 2021.
.
