Fabio Quartararo admits “it’s been a long time” since he’s felt positive coming out of a MotoGP weekend after his sixth place at Le Mans.
In his home race, Quartararo put on a strong showing for the French crowd as he qualified sixth before picking up fifth from the Sprint race.
The Frenchman also made a strong start to Sunday’s race, moving up to second on the start but eventually dropped back to sixth, as has often been the case with Yamaha’s struggles.
However, despite being openly negative about Yamaha’s lack of race pace all season, Quartararo shared a rare positive mindset after a “good” home race weekend.
“I definitely gave it my all,” Quartararo said via GPOne.
“The level of risk I took today to maintain this position was extremely high, but I think we had a good race.
“As I always say, the position is just a number. At Jerez, we finished 29 seconds behind Alex Marquez, whereas today we were 7 seconds behind Martin.
“That’s what I look at most: the gap, how close we are to the best. And in that respect, the weekend was positive.”
Quartararo also admitted coming out of Le Mans is the most positive he’s felt for a long time, elevated by his own performance and his home race weekend.
However, the Frenchman insisted the potential of the Yamaha bike is “still low” despite his sixth place.
“Today we had to be very gentle on the brakes,” he said.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this positive, even though we know our bike’s potential is still low.
“Today I was able to push 100% and had a lot of fun, especially in the early laps when the group was tight and it was easier to try to pass.”
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