Fabio Quartararo says he missed “two or three tenths” to challenge Marc Marquez and Miguel Oliveira for victory in the German Grand Prix.
The Yamaha rider looked for speed throughout the event at the Sachsenring and never drove any time outside of the first two during the entire practice session.
He also led the lead in the warm-up for the 30-lap competition on Sunday morning, but at the beginning of the race could no longer build on the pedigrees of the leading Honda and KTM machines and finally achieved a solid third place in the checkered flag 6.7 seconds behind the winner Marquez.
Quartararo insisted that he was satisfied to take an “amazing” third place. The Frenchman stated that his main goal was to finish ahead of Ducati’s top riders, with whom he is currently battling for the points lead, a goal he achieved when he extended his lead to 22 after top rival Zarco took place eight had fought.
“It was a tough race, we had a lot of struggles all weekend, this morning we saw that the pace was pretty good, but not enough to win,” said Quartararo.
“Miguel (Oliveira) and Marc (Marquez) were just faster than us, not much just two or three tenths, but in the race I got off to a bad start, mainly the first corner that left the other out, but I was only two or three Tenths slower than them.
“We said this morning that the main goal is to finish ahead of the Ducati and maybe finish on the podium, and we did, so I’m really excited about the podium.
“I think there were one and a half tenths in Turn 7, our bike just wouldn’t turn in that corner and this morning I and the team knew that it would be tough if we could fight for something there, and every time it was me on that corner behind another rider, I would lose a tenth or two all the time, so that was a weak point for us.
“Other than that, the bike was fine, but this track is very different (from previous tracks) and I didn’t feel good, I didn’t feel good for the whole race and finished third which is amazing.”
The six-time premier class race winner was full of praise for race winner Marquez after the Honda man stormed to a first win since the 2019 season finale in Valencia after wrapping himself in a terrifying Jerez. broken right arm fall early in the ’20 season, an injury that forced him to miss the rest of the season.
Quartararo noted that Marquez is from “another planet” as he has only won his sixth start since returning to the Portimao competition in April.
“Marc (Marquez) is from another planet. For me, he’s one of the best in history, because if you miss a racing year with different stakes, it’s unbelievable what he’s achieved.
“He was ahead and Miguel (Oliveira) was chasing him but he won so congratulations to him.
“I was in the mood that I had to send it (when it started to rain), it wasn’t easy to overtake on this track like Le Mans, I was behind the drivers and wanted to overtake, but Marc was so quick. when I knew it was the moment to push and get ahead of the guys.
“It was impossible to overtake and there were only two laps with rain, so unfortunately I had no chance of overtaking anyone.”