Fabio Quartararo explains how he pulled off Brazilian GP sprint result despite 12km/h deficit

After a string of critical comments about Yamaha’s 2026 challenger, Quartararo exceeded expectations with a standout sprint performance at Goiania

Fabio Quartararo says he had to push to the “absolute limit” to overcome a 12km/h straightline deficit and score an unlikely sixth place in the MotoGP Brazilian Grand Prix sprint.

The factory Yamaha rider was one of the star performers of the day at Goiania, taking advantage of a number of crashes in qualifying to secure fourth on the grid. He also made an impressive start in the sprint race to jump both Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez and grab second behind polesitter Fabio di Giannantonio.

Although his pace quickly faded a third of the way through, allowing eventual winner Marquez and a trio of Aprilias to pass him, he held on to finish sixth, beating the likes of Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia and Pedro Acosta.

The result was a welcome boost for the Iwata-based brand, whose new V4-powered M1 has struggled for performance and reliability, leading to some staunch criticism from Quartararo himself.

However, after Saturday, the Frenchman admitted that he had exceeded his own expectations in qualifying, which laid the foundation for his points finish in the sprint.

"Yes, I am surprised. Honestly, it was positive. I certainly didn't expect this morning's result,” he said. “I knew I could do roughly a 1m17.7s or 1m17.8s. Plus, it’s such a small circuit. Alex [Rins] did a 17.9; we did a 17.5. So, a tenth of a second on a track this small is a huge margin.

“But regarding the race, I told myself: ‘I'm going to give it my absolute maximum.’ And I think we rode a really great race. I didn't expect it to go quite this well.”

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

The 2021 world champion revealed that he was losing as much as 12km/h to Marquez on the straights, a claim backed up by the speed trap data from qualifying. While the Ducati rider was able to touch 348.3km/h on the start-finish straight in Q2, Quartararo could only accelerate up to 336.4km/h on the M1.

Quartararo’s straightline deficit shrank to about 4.5km/h in the sprint, but the other three Yamahas were among the slowest in the speed trap, losing 12-13km/h to Marquez and Bezzecchi.

The Frenchman said the flowing nature of the Goiania circuit helped him recover some time in corners, highlighting the left-handed Turn 10 as one of his strongest points.

“It's from spinning and also purely engine power,” he said when asked why he rapidly lost places in the sprint. “In qualifying, I think we were 12km/h slower than the top speed of Marc. So 12k in 1 km is quite a lot. Of course, it's everything, but I think that 80% is purely from the engine power."

He added: “We lose a massive amount of time on the straight. But then, the corners here are quite flowing - high-speed corners. The braking zone for Turns 9 and 10, that’s where I was carrying a lot of speed.

“It really involves pushing right to the absolute limit. But I still managed to pull it off quite well. I think tomorrow is going to be a bit more complicated compared to the other days.”

Despite the encouraging result, Quartararo dismissed suggestions that Yamaha has made a breakthrough, insisting the layout of the circuit played a key role.

“It's a small track and on one lap I know my capacity to be that fast,” he said. "Of course, it's true that this track feels better than Thailand, but the bike is the same, so it cannot be better. It's better when we have an improvement, but it feels better on this track.

“But I expect to struggle a bit more in Austin and Jerez. But we take what we can take, and today we had the opportunity to score points in the sprint and to be on the second row. We do our maximum and I think this year the goal is to give my 100%. If it's for P6 like today, it's perfect. In Thailand, it was 14th, so this is the goal for this year.”