Fabio Quartararo admitted he “pushed like hell” to hold off Marco Bezzecchi in the Malaysian Grand Prix having known that Francesco Bagnaia would win the title if he passed.
The factory Yamaha rider made a blistering start from 12th on the grid to rise to fifth by the end of the opening tour, before then taking fourth from Marc Marquez shortly after – which later became third after Jorge Martin crashed out.
Title rival Bagnaia meanwhile was also on a mission having recovered from ninth to lead the encounter, the Italian needing Quartararo to finish fourth with him winning in order to wrap up the title with a round to spare – a dream that looked realistic as VR46 Ducati man Bezzecchi closed down the Frenchman.
Bezzecchi ultimately ran out of tire before being able to defeat Quartararo, allowing him to hang onto third and keep his remote championship hopes alive at the season ending Valencia GP in two weeks time – the reigning MotoGP world champion conceding he “pushed like hell” to Deny Bezzecchi.
“I hoped that Pecco (Bagnaia) wouldn’t get the victory of course but we gave our maximum, the start and the first lap was the key point of my race,” explained Quartararo.
“We changed the strategy compared to Australia where we wanted to keep the tires fresh, today I just pushed myself hard in the beginning because my bike is not super good in saving the tires so I pushed three or four laps to get in front of Marc (Marquez), but it went well and I’m happy with the result.
“I saw Pecco was really good into the first braking (zone), so I knew I had to do something because otherwise my title chance would fly away, and I managed to do a great first lap.
“He (Marco Bezzecchi) was 1.5 seconds behind and then he closed to two or three tenths behind so I pushed like hell because I knew that if he overtook me and Pecco won he would have been world champion, but also because I wanted the podium .
“I knew if he got past me I wouldn’t be able to take him back, so I’m at least happy I could keep the title going until Valencia.”
Quartararo added that he will “prepare myself like a crazy man” to try and win the season curtain closer at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, safe in the knowledge that only victory will do as a result of entering the final event 23 points adrift of Bagnaia with only 25 left in play.
“Even though we are super far away we are not giving up and I want to finish in a good way in Valencia,” Quartararo continued.
“I will prepare myself like a crazy man because I know the only way I can fight is to win, I want to enjoy the race because it is the last of the season so we’ll see how we get on, but it’ll be important to enjoy Valencia.”