until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Since taking his maiden MotoGP pole at Jerez four races into his premier-class tenure, 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo has very much made the Spanish circuit his own.
In fact, so strong is his record there now that there’s a question to be asked about whether he’s on the verge of making the track his equivalent of Marc Marquez’s famous strongholds – the Circuit of the Americas and the Sachsenring.
From that 2019 pole, he looked absolutely set for a podium finish, until a mechanical problem left him stopped at the side of the circuit in a flood of tears.
In 2020 though, he made up for it by absolutely dominating not one but two races at the track during a COVID-rearranged calendar, starting both races from pole position and running away both times to win by nearly five seconds.
Even in 2021, where he was once again struck down by misfortune, he had looked set to dominate. Making it four pole positions from four attempts, he was over a second clear of Jack Miller when he was hit by arm pump, eventually dropping back through the field to finish a distant 13th but not before having showed his true speed.
Marc Marquez at COTA: 9 starts, 7 poles, 7 wins, 3.351s average winning margin
Marc Marquez at the Sachsenring: 8 starts, 8 poles, 8 wins, 3.632s average winning margin
Fabio Quartararo at Jerez: 4 starts, 4 poles, 2 wins, 4.549s average winning margin
As a result, he starts this weekend’s event the favourite once again, and according to Johann Zarco, the man who was unable to stop him last weekend at Portimao, it’s hard to find too much weakness to exploit at Jerez, especially thanks to the added boost provided by victory at the last round.
“The only weak point of Fabio is the straights,’ Pramac Ducati rider Zarco said, referring to the Yamaha’s slower top speed than its rivals as opposed to anything within Quartararo’s control.
“I think here we will not find the weak point of Fabio. But we can perform because we’ve got good things also in Portimao and we can also do pretty good here.
“If you find good pace for the race you can fight and put pressure on him. But let’s see. Because I think he was quite angry in Portimao and he used it pretty well to be so fast at the beginning of the race. But here he can be angry from last year. And knowing him, I think after the victory I think he will feel good.”
However, not all of Quartararo’s main rivals are as sure as Zarco that they’ll be racing for second place, with Suzuki rider Joan Mir confident that the man who took his title off him hasn’t yet reached a Marquez-esque level of dominance at Jerez.
Unable to find anything to challenge Quartararo with last weekend and looking like he was going to be forced to settle for the podium fight until he was wiped out by Jack Miller, Mir did concede that his rival does start as the favourite – but reckoned that he can be beaten.
“We know this is a track that, when the Yamaha is fast, Fabio will be really, really fast,” said Mir. “But I don’t think that it’s the same thing, [because] Marc won at the Sachsenring a lot of times. But Fabio is probably the favourite at the moment.”
Quartararo himself is going into the weekend somewhat level-headed – confident that he’ll be fast but very aware that nothing can ever be taken for granted in the ultra-competitive world of modern MotoGP.
“The most important thing throughout the weekend will be to make a great qualifying,” he said in the pre-event press conference.
“There were 15 of us within four tenths of a second at the test, but this is over one lap. You need to work a lot on your pace and this will be the most important thing, this will make the difference.
“I don’t need to pay anything back [from last year] because it wasn’t an issue with the bike, it was an issue on my side, but I would say that I’ve arrived much more prepared and the [arm] surgery from last year is perfect.
“Of course I feel we can go super fast, but we need to work in a normal way. We have the potential to fight for the victory, but first we need a good Friday and Saturday to see our speed.”
