Fabio Quartararo says he is still only interested in winning races despite having extended his series lead to 65 after claiming his fifth win of the year at Silverstone.
The Yamaha pilot dominated the British Grand Prix after battling back from running fourth early on and taking the lead less than half-a-dozen tours into the contest, a success that saw him open up a commanding lead in the riders championship following a tough day for closest rivals Joan Mir and Francesco Bagnaia who could only take ninth and 14th respectively.
The Frenchman says his goal is to not think about the championship until at least the San Marino GP at Misano in a month’s time, Quartararo insisting he only “wants to win” rather worry about having to “play the points.”
“There’s a long way to go but I had a goal in my mind to not think about the championship until Misano, so right now I don’t want to think about the championship a lot and trying to worry about playing the points,” said Quartararo.
“I just want to win, get more podiums and then we’ll see at the end of the year what happens, I feel great on the bike so thanks to the team for that.
“I think Aragon might be tricky because it’s one of my worst tracks, not for the Yamaha but I’ve always never been very consistent there so I want to try and learn to be more constant there to help for the future.”
Quartararo explained that the gamble to opt for the soft compound front tyre “wasn’t that big of an issue” due to the colder temperatures experienced on Sunday, though admitted he “never expected” to gap the field as quickly as he did when he finally reached the lead after snatching the lead from Pol Espargaro at Farm.
“Even if the team said it wasn’t going to be a problem (choosing soft front tyre) I was immediately trying to stay out of the slipstream to not overheat the front tyre but it was quite cold outside so this wasn’t going that big of an issue,” continued the eight-time premier class race winner.
“It was really nice because throughout the race I was feeling really comfortable, the most stressful part was the start because you never know whether a rider is going to hit you or if you go wide.
“The start is also tricky to manage with the hole-shot device, but as soon as we got to the second lap and I was behind the Espargaro brothers and (Francesco) Bagnaia I could overtake them step-by-step, I really enjoyed the overtakes and then my pace was really strong.
“I never expected to pull away by a second in a lap and a half, so then I was just really enjoying running at a good pace but not pushing 100%, so I’m really happy.
“I was really impressed with my performance under braking, especially where I crashed at Turn 8 (in Friday practice) as I was catching them a lot, normally when I pull away like that the race feels super long but this one went really fast.”
