Quartararo didn’t expect Morbidelli’s pole pace
Fabio Quartararo admits he didn't expect Petronas SRT MotoGP teammate and Catalan Grand Prix poleman Franco Morbidelli to be as fast as we was in qualifying.
Quartararo has outqualified Morbidelli six times this season and managed pole twice, but had to play second-best to his 'A-spec-mounted' Yamaha rival Morbidelli in qualifying at Catalunya.
Morbidelli produced the first sub 1m39s lap of the Catalan GP weekend on his final effort in Q2 to snatch his maiden MotoGP pole with a 1m38.798s, while Quartararo could only managed a 1m39.008s in second.
"I'm really happy because at the end most important thing is to be on the front row," Quartararo said of his Saturday.
"We achieved our goal, let's say. Today Franco was really fast. I expected him to be fast in qualifying, but not that much.
"At the end, I'm so happy about second position and our pace is good so I'm happy about our day."
Morbidelli last outqualified Quartararo at the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, when he beat him to second before going on to win his first race.
Conceding "it's always difficult" to beat the Frenchman in qualifying, Morbidelli was happy to show he was the best on "pure speed".
"It is great, it feels great to be first," Morbidelli said of his first MotoGP pole. "Qualifying is pure speed and I was really happy to see today I was the fastest in pure speed.
"It's always difficult to beat Fabio on a hot lap, so I'm very happy about the lap this I did in qualifying. I was feeling great on the bike, I was able to push a lot on it and able to push very hard on tyres. Great, great feeling today."
Valentino Rossi – whose 2021 deal with SRT was announced ahead of qualifying – completed an all-Yamaha front row having "improved my style" during practice on Saturday.
"It's a good Saturday because we start well from Friday," Rossi said. "When we start already the bike was competitive, giving me a good feeling and today we worked well because we did some modifications that I liked.
"And I improved my line, I improved my style. Also in FP4 with used tyre I had good pace. So, starting from front row is very important also because the first corner is very far, we need to give the maximum from the beginning and try to make a good race."
Share Or Save This Story
MotoGP 2025: Full rider line-up revealed
A year on from Marquez’s Germany MotoGP meltdown, has Honda improved?
What’s behind MotoGP’s right-hander chaos in Germany practice?
Fabio Quartararo forced to leave Monster as Red Bull returns to Honda
Fabio Quartararo: MotoGP should have the same number of sprints as F1
Fabio Quartararo wades into Francesco Bagnaia's struggles: ‘I’d be furious'
2026 Singapore Grand Prix: Guide to schedule, driver meet-ups, and race week parties
Jeb Burton joins RSS Racing, will drive father Ward Burton's No. 22
Stewart Friesen to run Kyle Busch throwback scheme in Charlotte NASCAR Truck race
Red Bull is overcoming ADUO restrictions but still calls on tweaks for F1 2027
The contrasting tactics used by Ducati and Aprilia in MotoGP 2026 title fight
Five things we learned from MotoGP Japanese GP after tyre drama
How to make two MotoGP grids with a single qualifying session
What we learned from an emotional MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments