Fabio Quartararo revealed that tyre pressure troubled him after first few laps and derailed his Aragon MotoGP race as points leader Joan Mir is taking race by race for now.
Having fought through a hip injury to secure pole on Saturday in Aragon GP, former MotoGP points leader, Quartararo, was no longer thinking about the physical pain on Sunday, but had more of a mental trouble after dropping outside the points position.
It was not clear what his problems were but post-race, Quartararo revealed it was the front tyre pressure which went high up the roof and eventually cost him places as he couldn’t get them in the range to salvage some points in the title fight. “It was a disaster day but it could have been even worse if Mir won, Maverick second, Dovi third,” he said to media including Motorsport Network, Crash.net and more.
“In our negative, we need to think about the small positive we had which is that both Alexes finished in front of Joan. As for the race, we need to see why the front pressure went totally out of control, out of normal. It was so strange. We had the pace to fight for, I will not say victory or podium, but the top five or six.
“That would have been great but like I said the front tyre just went out of control and we don’t know why. For me the tyre choice was correct because the first three laps were perfect. I had a great feeling and I was riding 48.6-48.5 that I never did during the weekend and the feeling with the front was even better than the soft.
“But the problem was that from lap 3 we already had the pressure much higher than normal. So you can imagine in the middle of the race how high the pressure was and – I can’t say the numbers – but it was totally out of control and we never ride in these conditions.
“Normally we always have a little bit of pressure rise in races but not that much. It was out of normal. We never had it last year, not even half of what we had. So I couldn’t brake, couldn’t turn, couldn’t lean the bike. That the reason why I was going so wide and couldn’t stop the bike.
“It was one of the only races that I didn’t learn anything because it’s not something that was from my riding style, it was something strange on the bike. A technical issue that couldn’t make me fast. I normally don’t blame something on the bike but it was something that was unrideable and it was not in a normal condition,” summed up Quartararo.
Looking at the title chances with Mir taking over, Quartararo feels that they will have to regain the points in next weekend’s race at Aragon but they certainly have to cash in at Valencia, where Yamaha will fare much better than here. He’s wary of other riders too like Alex Marquez, Alex Rins and more, who could play a big role in deciding the fate.
For Mir, though, he is taking it race by race still. He has six points advantage over Quartararo, that too, without having won any of the MotoGP races this year, which is his goal. “It’s true that we are showing serious consistency,” he said. “It’s probably the most difficult part in this championship to always be on the podium, even with some problems.
“It’s easier I think when the bikes goes perfectly… it’s not easy, but it’s more easy when the bike and everything comes your way to make a win. But the important thing is when you struggle to get good results to get podiums, and this is why I’m the leader at the moment. This was the key in all the races. And, also the way I’m approaching the championship. I go race by race, I don’t care a lot about the championship.
“Every race I care more, but I don’t care as probably other riders, they want more the title. I want the title as much as them, but I know that what I’m looking for is the victory. So, I will not change the way to approach the races, I will continue like that. I will try to get the victory and then if I have enough points advantage or not, I will start to think about the championship.
“I think we at the moment are the most consistent rider, so honestly we can be able to defend this lead that we have. But the reality is now I will not go to the next race only to defend the title. It will be a big mistake. I just will go race by race, try to win races, try to make podiums and in the last two races I will look where we are and we will start to make some plans,” summed up Mir.
Here’s how Aragon MotoGP panned out
