MotoGP – Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) prepared his long lap during free practice for the race

Five weeks have passed. But they did not make it possible to understand. No matter how much we turned the problem around, it was difficult to find a justification for the penalty that Fabio Quartararo will have to serve at Silverstone on Sunday after being penalized for an overly aggressive maneuver at Assen before the summer break. The pilots did not understand either. Even the Frenchman’s direct rivals, Aleix Espargaro and Francesco Bagnaia, expressed their disagreement on Thursday during the traditional press conference.

But what’s done is done and for the Frenchman, these five weeks have allowed him to digest. Hot, he had confided to think not to attempt such overtaking. “When he says that, I don’t think it’s truesmiled his runner-up in the Championship, Aleix Espargaro. It will double a lot“The Niçois now hopes that his case will not set a precedent, while other much more dangerous maneuvers at the start of the season had not been sanctioned.”Ils [les commissaires] have to find a balanceunderlined the tricolor champion. This is the most important thing not to make our sport boring.”

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Friday, during the first two practice sessions, “El Diablo” was not bored. If he had ensured, the day before, not to think too much about his penalty, he still devoted a good part of his day to studying the problem. On Sunday, in the race, he will have to serve a “long lap”, that is to say take a longer portion of the circuit during one of the three laps following the signage. So, to leave nothing to chance, the Frenchman went there several times.

Quartararo in the blind spot

Objective ? Work on your trajectory and your bearings, in order to limit the loss of precious time. During the first laps of the race, the peloton will still be grouped together and leaving two seconds on the way can therefore cause many positions to be lost, which will be difficult to recover on such a track with the Yamaha’s lack of engine power. During his repeated tests, Quartararo was able to find a little more confidence, so a few tenths, while erasing the track to make it less dusty. Thus, the Niçois should not lose more than two seconds in the matter.

Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) during free practice at the Grand Pri of Great Britain, August 5, 2022

Credit: Getty Images

He won’t take any risks anyway. “I don’t have to drive myself crazy with thishe confided in his debrief of the day. Risking a fall for a tenth or two is useless.” Especially since he may have worked on it in practice, the success of this maneuver will not depend only on him. At turn N.14, the moment could be difficult to live with.

“Of course, I will waste time there but above all I will go out on a trajectory where the other pilots will not see me.analyzed the Yamaha rider. And there’s not much I can do about it, ’cause I’ll be on the trail and I won’t stop” To limit the damage, Quartararo also worked on an exercise he masters perfectly, namely the hunt for the clock, to try to grab a pole more important than ever. Friday, he was thus the only one to complete a lap in less than a minute and 59 seconds. It is out of the question to leave the slightest place to chance.

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