The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team celebrated a special milestone on the Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland Sunday. Fabio Quartararo started his 100th Premier Class MotoGP Race today (which is also his 100th GP with Yamaha). He took the chequered flag in 11th place. Remy Gardner wrapped up his German GP replacement-rider gig with extra experience gained, ending the Race in 20th place.
Quartararo started from P14 on the grid and was on the outside of the pack in Turn 1, but El Diablo held on. He wrestled his Yamaha into 11th position which he then proceeded to battle over with Pedro Acosta, Marco Bezzecchi, and Fabio Di Giannantonio. With Maverick Viñales running off the track on lap 7 and Di Giannantonio having to retire from the race on lap 9, Quartararo was soon in 12th again. It became a lonely ride for the Frenchman from that point onwards. He kept pushing, though, and steadily reduced the gap to the rider ahead of him but came just short. However, as race leader Jorge Martin had crashed on the penultimate lap, Quartararo crossed the finish line in 11th place, 17.235s from first.
Gardner started from P21 and gained a couple of places through the opening turns before settling into 20th place. He engaged in battle with Johann Zarco and Stefan Bradl. The Australian tried to defend his position, but ultimately had to give way. He then focused on riding steady lap times and not making any mistakes, which can come easily at the Sachsenring. Gardner succeeded and completed the German GP in 20th place, 50.115s from the winner.
Today’s results see Quartararo stay in 15th place in the overall standings with 44 points. The injured Rins was moved into 21st position with 8 points. Gardner did not score points. Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP keep their 9th place in the team championship with 52 points, and Yamaha hold onto 4th position in the constructor’s championship with 48 points.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team will now enjoy a three-week break before they travel to the Silverstone track to resume the racing action with the start of the second half of the 2024 MotoGP season. The Monster Energy British Grand Prix will be held from 2nd-4th August.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
Team Director
First of all, I want to take a moment to congratulate Fabio on his 100th Premier Class Race milestone. It seems like only yesterday when he joined Yamaha in the satellite team and now it’s hard to imagine a GP without him. At all of these 100 GPs Fabio has given his 100%, and this race was no exception. Today that resulted in 11th place. He can rest assured during the summer break that Yamaha will keep working to come prepared for the second half of the season. Finally, I would like to thank Remy for joining us this weekend. He has been very professional and great to work with. He was sort of thrown into the deep end and handled the situation really well, and the data he collected for us this weekend will be put to good use over the next few weeks as we prepare for the British GP.
FABIO QUARTARARO
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Rider
It was a tough GP, but today went much better than expected. We miss a lot in the beginning with new tyres, but I finished with more or less the same distance to the winner as I did in yesterday’s Sprint, so I think that’s pretty good. We know where we can improve. I think that the second part of the season will be better, and I think that we will improve. We made progress since the start of the year. We’re working hard, and you can’t tell by the results yet, but we are on our way, and hopefully you can see the steps we made soon.
REMY GARDNER
Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Replacement Rider
We made a setting change to improve my feeling with the bike. I felt a difference in Warm Up, and I thought we could have a pretty good Race. The pace until lap 10 was really good. I was fighting with Zarco and Bradl, trying hunt down Mir, and I was in front of Bradl for 8-9 laps, which was good. I didn’t know how to manage the tyre drop of the rear tyre over the last 10 laps, but that’s all down to experience. Still, if you compare my pace with the medium rear between yesterday’s Sprint and today’s Race, today’s pace is much better. Hopefully I gave some good feedback and a different point of view, and hopefully Yamaha can take some positives from that.
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