Fabio Quartararo says he has no regrets about the way he approached the MotoGP sprint at Jerez, despite failing to convert a milestone Yamaha pole into a strong race result at the first attempt.
Quartararo took an unlikely pole in qualifying in Saturday morning - finding "four tenths in my pocket" between two runs that he didn't expect to have. It marked his and Yamaha's first pole since 2022, but he then crashed out in a long-shot bid to keep Marc Marquez at bay in the sprint.
Marquez had already pounced on him at the start, but Quartararo divebombed him into Turn 1 and rode a wild opening lap before Marquez attacked again the second time through Turn 6.
Quartararo found himself on the outside and could not make the corner.
"I wanted to try to be leading the most as possible, unfortunately was just one lap and a half. I felt Marc on the straight was really close to me, my bike started to shake - a little bit wide and I lost the front," Quartararo said.
"It's a place [in the corner] where, I would say, nobody goes there. But just trying to be as close [as possible] to him, I lost the front, quite straight but, you know - it's three years that I've not been in this situation of leading a race, and I didn't care.
More angles of Fabio Quartararo's crash 💔#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/RpV6zitLzl
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 26, 2025
"Of course if I could decide I would've crashed four laps later! But we don't play for the championship, we don't play for nothing at the moment.
"And the main goal today was to have fun, the feeling - it's just one overtake, but to be able to try an overtake on Marc in the first corner, lead the race, see nobody in front for one lap... it's only two minutes but in my head it's many years."
Jerez has been a calling card track for Quartararo for much of his career, though last year's Spanish Grand Prix was generally underwhelming for him and Yamaha.
Between then and now "we changed at least five specs of engine", according to Quartararo, while also gaining a bit of grip. But he's also felt the benefits of a session-to-session approach with fewer changes to the bike - as Quartararo insisted he didn't want to keep making minor tweaks to his M1 until there was something new that could meaningfully propel him up the order.
"For me I feel it is a really positive day - because being able to, in FP2 [before qualifying], make a really good pace, qualifying being on pole position, leading the race even if it was a short time... of course I wanted to finish on the podium, but like I said, the feeling of not being in the front was for many years.
"It's like it's new for me. I feel it's a really positive day and I would say it's the most positive of the year."
