MotoGP Spain, Fabio Quartararo Beware Of RIval For 3 Consecutive Wins At Jerez
JAKARTA - Fabio Quartararo, on Saturday won the pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix for the fourth time in a row, increasing his chances of winning the race at the Jerez-Angel Nieto Circuit.
Reporting from Antara, Sunday, May 2, Jerez witnessed how Quartararo claimed his first pole position as a MotoGP rookie in 2019, but unfortunately, technical difficulties eliminated the French rider's first golden opportunity at that year's race.
Then in the pandemic-stricken 2020 season, the 22-year-old racer returned to the forefront in the two-season opener races held at Jerez and wiped out victories there.
The Monster Energy Yamaha team rider grabbed pole position for the fourth time at Jerez with a time of 1: 36.755 seconds, beating his former Petronas Yamaha SRT teammate Franco Morbidelli by a narrow margin of 0.057 seconds.
Ducati rider Jack Miller completed the front row starting position in P3 after finishing 0.105 seconds later.
"Today felt very good. Jerez is one of the tracks I really like", Quartararo was quoted as saying on the team's official website.
"I have ridden a Yamaha four times here and four times I won the pole position. This is quite an extraordinary moment. However, I can say that today's Q2 session almost crossed the line. I think I will fall at Turn 6 and Turn 13, I made a mistake at Turn 6, but in the end, it didn't matter because we got pole position today".
"Tomorrow will not be easy, but I feel ready and have good potential. The medium and hard tires are both working well, so we will take advantage of tomorrow's warm-up session to decide what to use".
The start was not Quartararo's main strength at the start of the season, even though he has won two wins at the Doha GP and the Portuguese GP to top the standings with a 15-point lead over Bagnaia.
Morbidelli will threaten El Diablo from P2, not to mention the three Ducati riders; Jack Miller, Francesco Bagnaia, and Johann Zarco who are in the two leading rows.
"Franco is very fast, Jack, also my teammate (Maverick Vinales)", said Quartararo about who was the threat in the race later.
"Suzuki is always there, of course, they will block it. But, I feel we will do a good job", he concluded.