The atmosphere on the starting grid of the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya Sprint was electric with the grandstands of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya filled with passionate fans. Though only 12 laps long, the Sprint offered them plenty of chaos and drama. Fabio Quartararo and Álex Rins went on to finish in 10th and 12th place respectively.
Quartararo commenced his dash for points from P17 and was keen to make up positions early on. He crossed the start-finish straight for the first time in 14th. Overtaking his teammate on the next lap, he was soon in 13th place. El Diablo went on to battle with Fabio Di Giannantonio but then was passed by Franco Morbidelli. Thereafter, the Yamaha man had to fend off Marco Bezzecchi. The Sprint had some plot twists, though: over the course of last six laps, four rivals ahead of El Diablo crashed out, and Morbidelli was handed a long lap penalty due to irresponsible riding. The incidents would have put Quartararo in 9th position if it weren’t for Bezzecchi making his move on the last lap. Unable to retaliate, Quartararo finished in 10th place, 9.241s from first.
Rins started from P8 but lost ground on the opening lap, which he completed in P12. He fell further back on the second lap and found himself in 16th place. The home hero struggled to find a solid pace but kept pushing. Despite his best efforts, most of his advancements came about through the misfortunes of others. By the end of the Sprint multiple crashes of rivals had moved the number-42 rider up to 12th position, which he held across the finish line, 13.045s from the winner.
Today’s results now see Quartararo in 13th place in the overall standings with 25 points. Rins remains in 20th position with 7 points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP keep their 9th place in the team championship with 32 points, and Yamaha hold onto 4th position in the constructor’s championship with 28 points.
On the Catalan GP Sunday, the teammates will start the track action with the Warm Up held from 09:40 – 09:50 (GMT +2), followed by the 24-lap Race, which starts at 14:00.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
Team Director
The temperatures were higher today than yesterday, and that didn’t work to our advantage. As the track temperature goes up, the level of grip goes down, and for us that’s trickier than it is for others. Álex had a decent qualifying and secured a place on the third row. We had hoped he would be able to fight more towards the front, but he didn’t have a good feeling with the bike during the Sprint, especially on braking, most likely due to the higher temperatures and lower grip levels. As for Fabio, it was a shame that he was unable to make it through to Q2. But that’s the problem with being in Q1: it’s very competitive and unpredictable. However, his pace in the Sprint was decent, although he did struggle to overtake, mainly in Sector 4. We will work on finding more grip for tomorrow with both riders and hope to give a more competitive performance.
FABIO QUARTARARO
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was half and half today. Our bike is supersensitive to grip conditions: when grip drops a little for the others, it drops completely for us. The starting point of our lap times was much slower, but in terms of pace it was what I expected. It’s the last sector that’s killing us. I was catching Maverick and Jack, who were in front of me, but in the last sector we lost 0.3s every lap, so we have to work on this. But I’m riding well, and looking at the data, we can see we are pushing in the right direction. I’m really looking forward to the tests in Mugello and Valencia, because I think it could mean a pretty big change for us.
ÁLEX RINS
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was a tough Sprint race. We are following our evolution. We are working hard during all practices, and even in qualifying, to try to understand the bike better and get closer to the limit. In the Sprint race, it was so hard for me at the beginning to stop the bike with the full tank. Lap by lap, as the fuel level dropped, I was going a little bit better. But even so, we have to continue working on the bike.
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