Petronas SRT’s Fabio Quartararo says he was “dreaming” that rain wouldn’t arrive for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, having scored pole by a comfortable margin in dry conditions.
The Frenchman quickly found himself slipping back through the top ten in the early stages of the mixed condition-afflicted contest as he struggled for grip on his M1, dropping as low as 11th after only a quarters distance.
He managed to steady the ship from this point on as he took the chequered flag ninth thanks to retirements ahead of him, the Frenchman reckoning his result was “great” considering he managed to beat two of his three title rivals to the line.
“Unfortunately the rain came just before the start, I was dreaming that this wouldn’t happen,” said Quartararo.
“I was checking the forecast all the time to make sure this (rain) wouldn’t happen and it was looking good, but then it started raining a lot so I said ‘today is going to be your first experience in the wet’.
“We got a great result, and also an important one for the championship as we finished in front of both Joan (Mir) and Maverick (Vinales), (Andrea) Dovizioso finished ahead but he wasn’t on the podium so this was really good.
“We have learned many things, where we’re strong in the wet and I think we have the potential to make great lap time, so we have great information for the future.”
The three-time MotoGP victor added that staying “calm” in the early segment of the encounter was important while being consistently overtaken, while also insisting the importance of gathering data in the tricky conditions in case of any further inclement weather making an appearance over the final five race weekends.
“The race was tough because I was struggling in the beginning, I had to defend a lot but it was important to stay calm,” continued Quartararo.
“Everyone was overtaking me but I couldn’t do much more, I had to stay focussed and therefore we learnt many things so now we need to look at the data and find out where we can improve as now we’re in October, November time when the rain is more likely to come.
“I hope we don’t get any more wet races, but it will be important for us to be as fast as possible if we do get any.”
Quartararo was able to extend his points advantage at the head of the riders standings despite his tricky afternoon, with closest rivals Maverick Vinales and Joan Mir taking the chequered flag in tenth and 11th respectively just behind him.
Andrea Dovizioso’s fourth position in the French GP meant he moved ahead of Vinales in the points table to third, trimming his deficit to Quartararo to 18, while Mir remains second but ten points in arrears of the series leader.
