Last October, Fabio Quartararo won his first MotoGP world title with fourth place at the GP dell’Emilia Romagna e del Made in Italy at Misano. It was one of the rare times last year that the Monster Energy Yamaha man missed the podium, but he quickly realized he was going to be champion when he saw his rival Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) crash.
In the DAZN documentary about his road to conquest, El Diablo recalled upon finding out the title came from him: “In a split second I looked ahead, saw a motorcycle in the gravel and I thought, ‘Jack fell in the first corners, so it must be Pecco». So I looked back at the television screens and said, “Now I’m world champion”.
There was still one race to go but Quartararo admitted he was struck by the understanding that success was sealed: “And I didn’t even know how to drive anymore. I begged for the checkered flag to be shown. As I crossed the finish line, I thought of more than the good times, the worst times I had experienced in the past; and I realized that he was a world champion. It was a wonderful feeling’.