Quartararo “on the limit everywhere” for “best podium” of 2023 MotoGP season

The 2021 world champion enjoyed one of his stronger weekends of the season at the Mandalika track, qualifying fourth before finishing fifth in the sprint.

In the grand prix, Quartararo ran in the fight for victory late on with Francesco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales, ultimately finishing third but just 0.433 seconds from first.

It marked his closest finishing margin to the winner all season, with his rostrums in India and America coming 8.855s and 4.936s behind first.

“So, for me this is the best podium of the year because, especially in India, I finished eight or nine seconds from Bezzecchi,” he said.

“In Austin I made the podium but it was a little bit too far from the winners.

“Today I can say I really recovered [the gap] from the top two, I really caught them by my speed – not of consequences of the race.

“This is by far the best podium of the year. For Australia, it is different.

“Last year it’s a track where we suffered a lot and it’s a track where we have to take care about the tyres. And with the lack of acceleration and power we have it’s going to be tricky. But my main goal for Australia will be to be on the Q2 from practice.”

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Quartararo added that the limitations of the Yamaha meant he couldn’t do any overtaking in the grand prix and only picked off Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro because he suffered with tyre wear.

“I really pushed like hell, and when we ride alone we can really make our riding style and this is good,” he said.

“But when we are behind, we ride totally different to Ducati, Aprilia, basically all bikes.

“The only bike I overtook was Aleix because he had the soft tyre and he was really, really struggling.

“But we cannot overtake and this is something we have to improve. I think this also comes from the power.

“We are missing many things, but I will be happy if next year we can have a little bit more power to at least be closer at the end of the straight to try on the braking because I was really on the limit everywhere.”