Fabio Quartararo’s first experience of a MotoGP Sprint race ended outside of the points in tenth place.
Starting eleventh, the 2021 world champion lost ground due to a launch control issue then dropped to last on the opening lap when Joan Mir bumped into the side of his Yamaha during a fumbled pass.
Quartararo climbed swiftly to tenth place – setting what would be the second fastest lap of the race – where he remained until briefly taking ninth and the final point from Alex Marquez on the penultimate lap.
But the Gresini Ducati rider retaliated, leaving Quartararo in tenth place, 5.9s behind race winner and reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).
“We had a problem with the launch control, with second gear,” Quartararo explained. “So it was a good start but then when I shifted to second, I lost so many positions. And then I got hit by Joan, and I was last.
“The pace was not too bad, but we need to improve our one lap to have a better grid position.”
“I was behind Alex and Johann at the end and I see clearly where we are worse,” he added. “We have some points where we are also good, but in this track, we cannot take really the benefit of this. So it was tough.”
“We have strong points, but the strong point we have compared to the others, we cannot really take the profit from here. The edge grip that we have is a lot, but when you make the lap time in MotoGP it’s not in the corner speed. It’s when you open the throttle and pick up the bike and that’s where I was losing so much with all the guys in front.”
Sprint ‘a jungle’, safer to do two full races
The action-packed Sprint may have been entertaining to watch, but Quartararo felt that for safety it would be better to have two full length races.
“There will be a big accident. I mean, it’s a jungle. We are not in cars, that in the end you touch and it’s not a problem,” he said.
“It’s the same for everybody. I don’t want to complain, but at the end it’s safety. It’s not a problem to touch in the last laps with Alex – we touch 3-4 times, it’s racing. [But] in the first laps this is about getting crazy.
“I think that for safety it’s better to do 2 x 25 laps than 12 laps. You also have a little bit more time to recover if you lose positions.
“[Today] it looked like the first lap was the last lap… it is normal because you don’t want to lose positions. In the future, everybody must have to fight like this. That’s what I think is quite dangerous.
“Today only Marini and Bastianini crashed. For sure in the future, there will be many more crashes.”
It later emerged that Bastianini has fractured his shoulder, potentially ruling him out of not only Sunday’s race but next weekend’s Argentine round.
Quartararo’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli finished in 14th.
Keyword: Portimao MotoGP: Fabio Quartararo: There will be a big accident, 2 x 25 laps better