Fabio Quartarraro has approached following up his first MotoGP front row qualifier on the sprint podium in Qatar on Saturday since 2022.
Quartarraro’s Scorching qualifying lap easily placed the Monster Yamaha Rider in the pole position until Marc and Alex Marquez responded.
Despite this, he is the only non-Ducati in the top five, cutting 1.2 seconds from the qualifying lap in 16th place at last year’s event.
“It’s really good!” Quartararro said.
“I knew in qualifying that we had a good lap time, but I didn’t know that it would be that good, I made a zero mistake on the fast lap and felt fast.
“Our bikes fit this truck very well. We need to make a profit from this. I have to throw everything into it.”
The 2021 world champion continued his approach in the sprint, finishing third with former teammate Franco Morbidelli.
“During the sprint, I did my best,” Quartarraro said. “It’s very complicated to prepare and pass when they’re already in the drive area where they pull away.
“I’m very late on the brakes, but the problem is that I don’t keep up with the acceleration with (Morbidelli) and keep preparing and overtaking.”
Another Ducati then took part in the battle in the form of a rookie Fermin Aldegure. He snatched the fourth from Quartararro when the French saved the front-end slide in the final corner.
“Unfortunately, on the last lap, I lost the front three times because I wanted to fight for the podium. In the last corner, I lost the front completely and Fermin overtook me,” Quartararro said.
“But I think we’re really happy with today. We’ve learned a lot during this sprint. There are some areas we can push tomorrow. In other areas, we need to save our tires to keep them in good condition.
“We did a good job today, so let’s analyze the data well, and hopefully we can have a great pace and a great start tomorrow.”
Quartarao completed the sprint for 12 seconds faster than he was on his way to the 12th place finish a year ago.
Teammate Alex Lyns fought back in 12th and then a bad start in 12th after gambling with soft rear tires.
“We lost a lot at first. We need to see why,” he said. “Apart from that, today was a good day. We went straight to the first quarter and quarter in person. In the second quarter, we were very pleased with this as we were able to do a good lap while riding alone.
“But in the sprint, after the initial problem, I couldn’t do much. I was stuck behind Betzekki, Martin and binder.
“I was on soft tires, which was the right choice for me, but it meant I was on my limit a bit over the last few laps. It’s obvious that I’ll pick the medium for tomorrow.”