Fabio Quartararo reckons his second-ever MotoGP win at Jerez was “even better” than the first he clinched at the same venue just seven days ago.
The Petronas SRT man dominated proceedings in the maiden Andalucia grand prix to take his second victory in much the same fashion he won his first last weekend, leading Maverick Vinales by 4.5 seconds after 25 laps of the 4.4km circuit.
The Frenchman was at times nearly a full second a lap quicker than his pursuers in the early stages of the Andalucian GP, Quartararo putting his blistering speed down to the “really hard work” he and his Petronas SRT team had embarked on ahead of the second Jerez event this week.
“Even better,” answered Quartararo when asked about how good his second win felt relative his first following the race.
“When I got my first victory the first thing I did was to talk with my mechanic and saying which corners we needed to improve the bike on, from Sunday night to Friday I was fully focussed on the settings of the bike, trying to find the things we needed to improve.
“Honestly it felt so great because we worked really hard from Monday to now, so I’m really happy about the work we did.”
Quartararo conceded that while happy to leave Jerez with maximum points, the next races may be more of a struggle for his Yamaha M1, the speed traps across the two Jerez events hinting at a continual lack of straight line performance for the Japanese machine despite progress made in this area by Yamaha over the winter.
“First of all we need to stay calm (on leading the riders championship), because the next few races will be at tracks where we will struggle,” added Quartararo.
“We know that Brno and Austria (Red Bull Ring) are tracks that have the biggest hills and straights, so the job will be to do my best but of course the first things I think of now are to work hard to perform well.
“Last year Brno was a good track for us, not the best but with the confidence I take after Silverstone last year I think we can make a good step.”
Quartararo’s double Jerez success means he currently leads the 2020 MotoGP riders standings with a maximum 50 points, 10 clear of Maverick Vinales who bagged the runners-up result in both contests.
This therefore gives Quartararo the early title-favourite mantle, with pre-Jerez prime championship contender Marc Marquez currently yet to score following his early Spanish GP exit and Andalucian event withdrawal due to the broken arm sustained in his fearsome crash in the former encounter.
He should be good to return to action for Brno in two weeks time, a venue at which he sealed victory at last season on his way to a sixth premier class title.
