Fabio Quartararo says that a swollen right arm, a hangover from his post-Barcelona arm pump operation, made achieving a strong result in the Dutch TT ‘really difficult’.
Having dominated the Dutch TT weekend prior to Sunday, leading three of the four practice sessions before scoring his third pole of the season, expectations were high for a potential first victory for the MotoGP rookie.
Despite slipping to third off the line behind the rapid-starting Suzuki’s of Alex Rins and Joan Mir, he moved back into the lead after a few laps when Rins went down at Turn 9 and Mir went wide at the penultimate corner and dropped back.
He then struggled with the increased wind levels for the race, the Petronas SRT pilot visually struggling with the high-speed stability of his M1 Yamaha.
He was forced to close the throttle of his MotoGP machine several times on the fast approach to Turn 6, which eventually cost him the lead to race winner Maverick Vinales, as well as the runner-up position to Honda’s Marc Marquez.
He salvaged a podium despite his difficulties, his second in succession, but was disappointed he couldn’t fight for his maiden premier class victory.
“It’s true that our bike was moving a lot, physically it was very tough and during the race my arm was getting, not really arm pump but a strange feeling that made it really difficult to turn in the right hand corners,” said Quartararo.
“My arm was really shaking so I managed it well to get to the podium with the distance between me and Dovizioso, so I am really happy to be here and get another podium.
“Today the wind was really strong, yesterday it was strong but a different kind of wind. Today my bike was shaking a lot and it was so difficult to handle it, and unfortunately we couldn’t fight for the victory but I’m happy with the podium.”
Quartararo reckons that another strong result could be on the cards at the Sachsenring this weekend, especially as the predominantly left-handed circuit should put less stress on his injured arm.
“I am really confident for the next race, the Sachsenring is a track I don’t really like but for my arm it will be the best because today I had to rest it during the left-handed corners and the Sachsenring is pretty much only left-handed corners.
“I can’t wait to get there and feel the bike at the track, but it should be good.”
Discussion about this post