Written by Mahia Alarcon, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Fabio Quartararo certainly left Assen with mixed feelings. Coming into the weekend with a twisted ankle, and a broken toe, following accidents while training the week prior to the race, the Frenchman managed to endure the pain, and start fourth for both the sprint and the main races. The medical check after the weekend’s opening practice declared him “To be reviewed” after he was seen limping throughout, but after the practice sessions, he was declared “fit to race” just in time for the Sprint.
Despite his injuries, Quartararo was sure they would not affect his pace, and with the help of painkillers, he would be able to perform at the standard required for a MotoGP weekend.
The qualifying results came as a surprise, as he finished a lofty fourth, with a bike that wasn’t performing as its best this season, one that both Yamaha riders aren’t comfortable riding. The weekend seemed to be positive so far, and it was only made better by the time the Sprint Race came around on Saturday. Quartararo gave it all, trying to ignore the injury and it came to everyone’s surprise when he finished an outstanding P3, right behind the leading pair of Marco Bezzecchi and his fierce championship rival from the season prior, Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia.
Unfortunately, this high did not last on Sunday. Having started the race fourth, he struggled at the race start itself, dropping to 12th on the road. Fighting to climb back up positions, he found himself in an unlucky situation. Quartararo lost the front of his bike, and crashed down in front of fellow French driver Johann Zarco, who had no time to react to the incident, and went down as well. Zarco was then seen helping Quartararo up, after the latter could not move from the floor, following a hefty impact.
After the race, the condition of Fabio’s injury was checked, and for everyone’s relief, he did not suffer any major repercussions from the hit between the bikes. However, he had suffered a twisted elbow, and worsened his toe fracture.
Apart from the incident, Quartararo decided to take the positives from this weekend, and in his post-race debrief, said,
“If you take out of consideration what I have going on now on the left side of my body, it was a positive weekend: great qualifying, great sprint race, great speed. I take this as a positive weekend. Even though I’m injured, I have ridden at my best level.”
The 2023 season so far has been the hardest year of his Yamaha journey. The Frenchman is finding every race weekend more frustrating than usual, as the Yamaha bike is not anywhere close to its peak performance. Many issues are yet to be fixed, and it is difficult for a rider to remain calm on track, when other bikes zoom past without much effort.
On top of this, Quartararo expressed his frustration over Yamaha’s development path at the Italian GP, two weeks prior. His frustration arose over all of Yamaha’s development work going to waste, as all the new parts he tried in the pre-season, and at Jerez were never used again after.
MotoGP heads into their summer break until 6th August, when the season resumes at Silverstone. Ideally, these issues the Yamaha seems to be having with their bikes can be tackled and worked on during this break. and Fabio Quartararo is able to return to his normal riding style, once the season resumes.
In the meantime, we wish him a speedy recovery, and will have to wait to see what he can bring to the track post the summer break.