Fabio Quartararo, during the Austrian GP. /
Analysis
The Frenchman continues to lead the MotoGP general with solvency after the two races in Austria, to which he arrived with Zarco as the main rival for the title
On Sunday of the Austrian Grand Prix, during the warm up before the race, Fabio Quartararo gave a whole exhibition. He was the only driver to go down from 1 minute and 24 seconds, a barrier that he broke eight times. In addition, it had been one of the most solid on Saturday during the fourth free practice, that session in which drivers and teams can fully focus on the race freed from the corset of necessarily doing a good time; and in the official one he had fought one-on-one with the Ducati for pole position.
From the second position on the grid, he managed to place himself in a leading group of three units, with Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Márquez, in which it seemed that it was going to be the fight for victory. The ideal scenario to consolidate his already solid leadership, with the second overall, Johann Zarco, offside due to a crash, and with the third, Joan Mir, fifth, and now three seconds behind the best. A situation that turned at the moment in which the race jumped into the air with the irruption of the rain and with the tension that led some to gamble and not change motorcycles and remain on the wet asphalt with dry tires, already others to go through the pits and use their second units ready for the water. A game from which Brad Binder came out crowned as the winner, and which favored Quartararo’s two rivals: Bagnaia, who was fourth in the World Cup and finished second, and Mir, who signed a fourth place that allowed him to cut four points from the Frenchman , who crossed the finish line in seventh position.
“It is the first time this year that I have thought a bit about the championship, I have to be honest,” explained Quartararo this Sunday. “I was risking a lot and I didn’t want to suffer a stupid fall. I almost fell into turn 1. When Marc crashed, yes, it was time to think a bit about the World Championship. We arrived with 34 points of advantage at this circuit, we started with 47, so we have increased the advantage which is something we did not expect. I think our situation is quite good in the championship, “he acknowledged. And it is that Austria has changed a bit the references in the game for the title, once Zarco, with a satellite motorcycle, has been displaced from the front line of his rivals by Bagnaia and, above all, by Mir.
Mir cuts eight points
The Mallorcan reached this double at the Red Bull Ring 55 points behind the leader and comes out at 47, eight cut points that seem insufficient for the pressure to begin to help him. “It’s okay. Of course we could opt for something else, but I think we have saved the furniture, “said Mir about the situation of the general after the Austrian tour. “This circuit is good for me, but it is not a favorable circuit for Suzuki. I think that now there are more favorable tracks for our bike. Yes we were one of the rivals to beat, but it was a bit more difficult. We cannot sleep. The championship is the most important thing. Every time you have to take a look at the championship, but above all exploit everything we have to be as close as possible to the end of the year, which will be the key, “said the Spaniard.
At the moment the World Cup has seven grand prizes left, this if the organizer, Dorna, cannot find a substitute for the canceled test in Thailand: 175 points that will begin to be put into play on the last weekend of August at Silverstone, a scenario that It hosted no proof in 2020 and that can almost be considered a blank sheet for the three contenders for the title. All three were in their first year in MotoGP in 2019, the last in which the World Cup visited England. Quartararo was fourth on the grid and did not finish the first lap of the race, Bagnaia started eighteenth and finished eleventh, and Mir could not even compete due to an injury, yes, on a Sunday in which he won the Suzuki of his teammate Álex Rins. An important reference at a time when, if he wants to revalidate his crown, the pressure level must begin to rise on Quartararo, a rider who has grown a lot after he collapsed in 2020 in the second part of a season that had started dominating firmly.
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