It’s the last GP of the year for everyone and for Fabio Quartararo, who probably can’t wait to leave a disastrous season behind and start over in the Yamaha factory team next year. The Frenchman lost a world championship that he initially seemed to have won through an endless spiral of technical problems and which he apparently could not get out of in the last few races. The Portimao race will therefore be the last before he makes the jump on the bike that is now owned by Valentino Rossi and it would be really important for Fabio to leave the Petronas team with a good performance.
“Today went well, I can finally say that I enjoyed it! The route is fantastic, full of ups and downs! At the end of the day I was impressed with my time because today we made a lot of changes, tried different gear settings, a carbon swingarm, a shock absorber and adjustments, but in the end my last three laps were positive so I’m happy “.
Before answering any questions about technical innovations, can you tell us a bit about the feelings you experienced on this route? You said it was great, but how hard is it?
“I think that is The most difficult track I’ve ridden in MotoGP. Here the brake references are very difficult to find because you can’t see anything I think that’s the main thing that we struggle with because we know the importance of braking at the perfect point and unconsciously braking earlier than necessary. “
How exciting was it to go down the descent with these motorcycles and also in the last corner? Were you able to do it at full throttle?
“No, you’re not really up on the last corner, but at the exit it’s pretty unbelievable because you get a lot of speed. I am curious how fast we are. I think we shouldn’t be far from 250 km / h and it’s an amazing feeling. In the descent on the first lap, I have butterflies in the belly, it really seems like a roller coaster ”.
You mentioned the many technical changes and tests that have been carried out on your bike today. Did you by any chance try the ratios Lorenzo used in the tests conducted here?
“I use different attitudes than Jorgebut I still had a base to build on and I think it was important. We used an extra gear in almost all slow corners. Today between FP1 and FP2 we couldn’t modify the gearbox of this bike as I had to try the carbon swingarm so I completely changed the bike and it was positive. “
When choosing the tire, we saw a lot of tests for all teams today. What did you do? Who did you see in good shape?
“Maverick was very quick with the hard one, while I’m very happy with the hard one on the front, but for the time attack I preferred to use the medium. I’ve seen a lot of drivers put new tires on again and again, while in the end I only went out with new tires and the soft at the back. I get on well with all connections, even if the second run in FP2 was difficult Based on the tests I did on the new gearbox and swingarm. In any case, I don’t think my pace was bad and I know that I can still improve. “